ORANGEFIELD — It will be a new adventure for the Orangefield Lady Bobcat volleyball program as they will drop down to the Class 3A ranks after being one of the smallest schools at the Class 4A level for years.

Second-year coach Ashlee Broussard welcomes back several key players as the first official day to work out for volleyball teams across the state was on Wednesday.

The Lady Bobcats were sweating it out at the football stadium. They were running up and down the stadium bleachers, doing a lot of jump rope work along with a bunch of pushups.

There were also around 50 kids that were also participating in the Bobcat Football Camp as Orangefield High School was a busy spot to be this week.

“The kids really put in a lot of work over the summer, so most of them came in here in pretty good shape,” said Broussard. “We’re so excited on what the season has in store for us. It seems like it starts earlier each year.”

The Lady Bobcats open the season for real next week with non-district home matches again Nederland Tuesday and Jasper Friday.

Just because the Lady Bobcats bumped down a classification doesn’t mean their schedule got any easier with non-district tilts against the lies of also Beaumont United and old 4A district rivals Bridge City, Hamshire-Fannett and Hardin-Jefferson.

“We wanted to play a tough non-district schedule to get us ready for district,” said Broussard. “We’ll see some teams with a lot of depth and it will only help us down the road.”

The Lady Bobcats will be competing in District 22-3A against the likes of Anahuac, Buna, Hardin, Kirbyville, Kountze, Warren and East Chambers.

“There are some very tough teams in our new district, so it really isn’t going to get easier,” explained Broussard. “Hardin has a rich tradition and so does Kountze. Buna is always tough. It’s going to interesting and fun at the same time, playing some people we haven’t played a bunch.”

With the season right around the corner, Broussard is confident in the Lady Bobcats’ future.

“We’ve got some outstanding leadership coming back that we’re excited about and we have some young ones that we think can really step up and play a bunch.”

Over at the football camp, the youngsters were getting in plenty of work along with the Orangefield varsity staff as kids from second through ninth grade were learning a ton of fundamental skills and having a blast.