Times Staff Report

PREP FOOTBALL | CAMP NOTES

At the start of each practice, Lake Station's players begin with the same theme. Someone yells, "Are you ready kids?" The response is, "Aye-Aye Captain." Followed by, "I can't hear you." Then, the players yelled back, louder, "Aye-Aye Captain."

Yes, the theme song from SpongeBob SquarePants is now a big part of the Eagles' football program.

"We do it to keep our guys laughing, to keep the moral up," senior lineman Ricky Alvarado said. "When we started, only a few knew the words, but they eventually caught on. We have a couple choir and band guys, so maybe that's helped us be pretty good."

Lake Station coach Joe Fussell said his kids do the song during the stretch and flex period of practices. And with a 4-year-old grandkid, he's about ready to sing along, too.

"Gary (a character from SpongeBob) is quite distracting with his constant meowing, and we're not quite ready for a gig at Lollapalooza, but altogether it's not a bad start to practices."

Floyd the Barber: Ben Rigby walked into practice last week at Lowell, and not one of the senior wide receiver's coaches knew who he was. Why?

"He used to have long blond hair, like some kind of punk-rock band guitar player," Red Devil coach Kirk Kennedy said with a laugh. "Look at him now."

Then, Kennedy called Rigby into his office and the problem with name-face-recognition became apparent. He had shaved his head.

"It's hot outside," Rigby said. "Really hot."

A walk to remember at Griffith: The look at The Boneyard in Griffith will be a little different this season. It also will be a little more special.

The -- Les Thornton Panther Pathway -- will be unveiled during Griffith's home opener against Morton on Aug. 17. The pathway, which has been in the works for over a year, will honor the former longtime Griffith football coach.

Thornton, who coached the Panthers for 17 years and was instrumental in implementing the wishbone offense and turning the program around, died June 25, 2006 at 70 after complications from a stroke.

Thornton, an Indiana Hall-of-Fame coach, was 191-92 during his career.

Griffith athletic director Rick Flutka said 185 personalized bricks were sold and will be installed this week. Flutka said the school was looking into moving the ticket booth for a couple of years and it worked out that they could do the construction and tie it in to honor Thornton at the same time.

"From the amount of the sale, we've constructed a new ticket booth entrance, an auxiliary concession stand window, a concrete entrance and the installation of the bricks," Flutka said.

Flutka contacted Thornton's wife, Fern, who has relocated to Florida, to let her know about the halftime ceremony. He wasn't sure if she'd be able to make the trip or if she was going to have somebody represent her at the game.

Times staff reporter Steve Hanlon and correspondent Brian Waddle contributed to this report.