Editor's note: This is the corrected version of a story that was posted July 6.

Richmond varsity football coach Nick Persell and his Spartans are getting back to work this week.

The Spartans are slated to kick off a team camp Monday on the Richmond High School campus. It’s scheduled to conclude Thursday.

The camp follows a dead period for Richmond athletics. As Persell pointed out in a June 30 email, dead periods are required by the Missouri State High School Activities Association, Richmond’s governing body for interscholastic activities. Usually, the Richmond R-XVI School District sets its dead period around Independence Day, he stated.

“It’s a halfway point for our summer weightlifting program and it allows families to get some much-needed vacation time before we start a pretty intense training schedule this July,” Persell wrote.

That schedule also includes another four-day team camp, set for July 14-17; July 22 scrimmaging with Pleasant Hill; a July 24 multiteam camp, hosted by William Jewell College; and an end-of-the-month multiteam camp, hosted by Excelsior Springs.

During that rigorous training period, the Spartans hope to install their base defense and offense, Persell stated. They also hope to begin building the “foundation and teamwork that is required to play high-level football,” he wrote.

Persell and his assistants are ecstatic about the group of athletes they’ll work with this month and beyond. He and his staff “believe we have the talent to compete with the best teams in the state,” he wrote.

Those athletes include quarterbacks Jacob Lieberknecht, Jayden Pearson and Carson Persell, the head coach’s son. The trio and other skill position players displayed their abilities in June during 7-on-7 competitions at Kearney.

Coach Persell was impressed with the accurate throws and decisions his quarterbacks made. He was impressed, too, with his receivers’ abilities to create separation from opposing defenders “and make great catches all of June.”

“Offensively, having a successful passing game requires quarterbacks and receivers to be on the same page and execute their responsibilities on time,” he stated. “I thought our players made some great progress on these aspects, but will need to continue to work through July and be game ready by August.”

Richmond “did some really nice things on the defensive side,” too, Coach Persell stated.

“Their effort and communication improved each week and they saw continuous improvement each week,” he wrote. “Offenses tend to have an advantage in 7-on-7 competitions, since there is no defensive line rush to affect the QB, but our guys did a great job competing and getting many defensive stops against some talented offenses.”