August 15, 2012 7:00 a.m. LINESVILLE — One of the perks of being a long-time football coach is that you always have something to wear to practice, having accumulated years of color-coordinated T-shirts from team camps and weightlifting programs and elsewhere.

For the coaches at Conneaut Area Senior High, their wardrobe selection is still pretty limited.

“These are the only two shirts we have with Conneaut on them, so we’ve got to alternate them each day,” laughed Conneaut assistant coach Todd Greenawalt, indicating the shirt that he was wearing and a different one being worn by head coach Pat Gould.

“Got to get rid of the orange and black,” Greenawalt added.

Early in preseason football camp, every program is a work in progress. But that’s especially true at Conneaut, which is busy combining three former programs — Conneaut Lake, Conneaut Valley and Linesville — under one new banner.

Conneaut Lake joined Linesville last season. So, one might think that past experience would make the addition of the Conneaut Valley players go a little smoother.

But this year is, according to Gould, “different than last year, a little bit. It’s a little bit different than bringing the Conneaut Lake kids over.”

The differences this year aren’t due to the former Valley players, Gould said. It’s more about what the entire Conneaut School District is going through.

Last year, when the Lake players were playing at Linesville, there were still separate high schools at Conneaut Lake, Conneaut Valley at Linesville. This year there will be only one high school — Conneaut Area. And no one is exactly sure how that’s going to work out.

“There’s a lot of confusion,” said Gould. “And it’s not the district’s fault. It’s things they’ve got to go through. It’s things they’re waiting for. And I get that.”

“It will all pan out,” he added. “We’re going to figure things out as we go. As far as the district goes, it will be okay once we get going. I think there’s a lot of tension right now. But it’s, ‘Hey, let’s go to school. Let’s get through camp. Let’s get going.’”

The players themselves seem to be handling the situation pretty well.

“Us Linesville and Lake kids are used to consolidating with each other,” said senior Tyler Bartlett, who played for Conneaut Lake up until last year. “The Valley kids are fitting in well.”

The transition was understandably hard on the former Valley players. The Lake and Linesville kids were able to form some kind of bond last season. Now Valley enters the picture as a kind of late-comer.

This may explain why the turnout from Valley was kind of low. Of the 50-some players at Conneaut’s camp, Gould estimates about eight are former Valley athletes.

“They’re like the third guy coming up,” said Gould. “But our kids don’t seem to think of it that way. The kids are fine.”

Josh Manross, a senior lineman for Conneaut who comes from Valley, certainly didn’t feel unwelcome when he arrived.

“It’s all right,” he said. “As soon as we came over here and started lifting weights, everything was fine. Everybody was saying, ‘Here’s our new family. Don’t treat each other like crap.’”

The thing is, those three former programs were fierce rivals. In fact, last year the Lake-Linesville team was upset by Valley 14-12 in Week 7. That loss probably kept Linesville out of the playoffs.

No doubt, that game is probably still a sore spot for some of the Lake and Linesville guys. Maybe its something the Valley boys should avoid talking about.

Or not.

“We bring it up a lot because it’s the only game we won,” said Manross. “Yeah, we shouldn’t rub it in. But they understand what the feelings are, how we tease. It’s just like any other team, so they understand.”

Just like any other team. That’s probably the key phrase right there. Despite whatever is going on at the school, despite all the old rivalries, come opening day on Aug. 31 a touchdown is still worth 6 points. A turnover is still a big momentum changer. A big hit will still light up the crowd.

It’s still football. And the Conneaut Area team still has a job to do.

“It’s going to be forgotten,” said Manross. “Everybody is going to forget about the past and look at this season.”

Said Gould, “It’s coming. I’m excited. It is different. But I’m looking forward to it. We could be okay. We could be a good football team. But they’ve got to bond. It will be all right. We’ll get them together.”