Pisgah assistant football coach Brad Thomas wasn’t satisfied with a young player’s first attempt during a blocking drill. “Come on now, play a little reckless,” Thomas said. “You’ve got enough pads on to protect you.” Thursday was the first day high school football teams in Alabama could practice in full pads as they transitioned from […]
Pisgah
assistant football coach Brad Thomas wasn’t satisfied with a young
player’s first attempt during a blocking drill.
“Come on
now, play a little reckless,” Thomas said. “You’ve got enough pads
on to protect you.”
Thursday
was the first day high school football teams in Alabama could
practice in full pads as they transitioned from the helmets and
shorts practices of Monday-Wednesday.
Coaches
know a lot can be accomplished during those first three days, but
when the pads go on, they say business really picks up.
“Those
first three days, they’re a necessary thing for safety reasons,”
said Pisgah head coach Terry Kenimer.
“But you
look forward to getting them in pads and really getting after it.
You can look smooth as glass in shorts and helmets, but it becomes
a different world when you put those pads on.”
After a
summer of non-contact 7-on-7 drills and the shorts and helmets
practices, teams are working quickly to get reacclimated to the
physicality of the sport with fall jamborees looming less than two
weeks away.
“The
7-on-7, that’s good, but you get in that 7-on-7 mode on both sides
of the ball and it takes a few days in pads to get out of that,”
said North Jackson coach Shawn Peek. “Once you put those pads on,
it’s two weeks until you scrimmage somebody. You’re sense of
urgency goes way up.”
Peek
said his players were “rusty” when it came to practicing in pads.
But while precision may have been lacking, effort and excitement
wasn’t. “We’ve got a lot of technique work to be done, but the kids
were excited about it,” he said. “They were very enthusiastic and
we had a lot of contact.”
Section’s first practice in pads was interrupted by a heavy
rainstorm, but it didn’t dampen the Lions’ effort, said first-year
Section coach Joey Kirby.
“We
practiced in it until it got to the point where we couldn’t see,”
Kirby said. “The boys didn’t let it bother them. Their effort was
good despite it being a washout. They were excited about finally
getting to hit.”
Scottsboro coach Swane Morris said his team’s two days in pads
concluded a “really good week” of practice.
“Our
kids have worked hard, they’ve really hopped around and been
enthusiastic,” Morris said. “That first three days, we got a lot of
information passed out, but you want to get in pads because
football is about [being physical].”
