Thursday, May 21, 2009

"Spring Practice "

I spent the last few weeks railing about some things that just don’t seem right (Sidewalk to Nowhere and Weight Rooms While We Lay Off Teachers). But in order to dispel the speculation that Sid Riley is rubbing off on me, it’s time to relax a bit and return to some sports news.
If you catch my article on page two of sports you’ll notice that spring football practice is wrapping up this week. But you’ll also notice that one school, Sneads, did not have spring practice at all this year. Another school, Graceville, cut their spring practice short and are not playing in their scheduled jamboree. A third school, Cottondale, had their Head Coach on limited duty early on due to being involved with the Lady Hornet’s softball squad in the playoffs.
The good news for most of these schools was that their baseball, softball and track teams did really well this year and made the playoffs. The bad news, especially for the three smaller schools, is this meant that many of the football team’s players and /or coaches were unavailable or limited in the abilities to participate in spring football.
Some football gurus are fretting over this fact. But most of the coaches really don’t seem to be that concerned. Sneads and Graceville could have mustered up a semblance of full spring practice but the thought seems to be, why bother. With players and coaches likely to miss the first portion of the spring session, it really is not worth the time and effort to get all the equipment out. At best they’d only have a few days to get some work in.
Even under the best of circumstances some would say spring practice is not really that benefical anymore. Spring practice has been reduced to three weeks, beginning May 1st. The first week is without pads, just helmets and shorts. The last week usually includes a spring game or jamboree on Thursday. So teams will spend at least a couple of days getting ready for that game. Do the math and that really only gives a squad about 8 days in full pads. Some would say that is just enough time to get a few folks hurt. At the very least it is not enough time to get much done.
The larger schools are not in quite the same shape as the smaller schools. They’ll likely have enough players at least to practice. But they usually will be missing a few of their better athletes that are still involved in baseball or track.
So to the football gurus worried that their favorite squad might be lagging behind. Simply Put, take a chill pill. The coaches will have the guys working all summer long and come fall they’ll get geared up and will be ready to go.
From the front porch: Uncle Bob said he agreed with Albert Einstein, who said "Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting different results".

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