MISQUAH — Pike football opens two-a-days Monday morning, and by the count posted Friday, twenty-nine players are out — up four from a year ago, which in a school this size is the difference between comfortable and thin. The first week runs mornings and evenings with the middle of the day surrendered to August; helmets Monday, pads Wednesday, per the league’s acclimatization rules, which coaches complain about publicly and follow gratefully.

The practice schedule went up on the gym doors Thursday, ending a two-week standoff between Denny Dahl and the school’s copier that this newspaper covered perhaps more thoroughly than the matter warranted. The copier is working. Dahl, asked for comment on its return, said “no comment” in a tone that suggested the machine and he have reached an arrangement neither will describe.

The field itself has been cut twice this week and looks, from the road, like the best it has looked in three summers — a benefit of the wet stretch in June and the fact that nobody could practice on it during the smoke. The grass is the one part of the program that had a perfect July.

Scrimmage is a week Friday at home, and the season opens the Friday after that, on the road. The full fall schedule — football, volleyball, cross country — runs in School Notes this week and next.