As the calendar turns to July this weekend, the high school football season almost gets its unofficial start.

7-on-7s, camps and now 11-on-11s take center stage in the high school football landscape. Monticello football coach Cully Welter says June for his team is a lot of team building and strength training and working around those multi-sport athletes' summer schedules.

Going into his 15th season, Coach Welter has turned Monticello into an annual playoff team and a lot of that has to do with the buy-in the program gets in the summer months.

Enhancing the June program for Monticello is the new turf on the football field right outside the weight room. Coach Welter says not having to send kids across Kratz Road in Monticello to the practice field for agility work has made their workouts much more efficient.

Monticello hosts its own 7-on-7s starting July 5 each Wednesday night at 6 pm. They will also head to the Washington 7-on-7 later in the month which is one of the area's larger events.