Ben E Lou
07-19-2004, 08:29 PM
First, the controversy, then my comments on Tucker...
Early practice date has coaches steamed
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 07/14/04
The area's high school football coaches rarely agree on any subject. However, they are nearly unanimous when the topic is the pushed-up date for this year's preseason practice: They do not like it.
Practice for teams in DeKalb and Rockdale counties begins Monday, which is the state's earliest starting date for the sport.
<!--endclickprintinclude--><TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=2 width=175 align=left border=0><TBODY><TR><TD>http://img.coxnewsweb.com/B/08/31/67/image_767318.jpg (http://www.ajc.com/highschool/content/sports/highschool/0704/Spot_1.html)
KEITH HADLEY / Staff
(ENLARGE) (http://www.ajc.com/highschool/content/sports/highschool/0704/Spot_1.html)
</TD></TR><TR><TD class=caption>High school football players like Tucker's Myke Compton find themselves headed to preseason practice earlier than ever before. The heat is a major concern for area coaches.
</TD></TR><TR><TD><TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=1 width=170 bgColor=#ffffff border=0><TBODY><TR><TD align=middle width=170 bgColor=#cccccc><TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=10 width=168 bgColor=#ffffff border=0><TBODY><TR><TD width=148>http://img.coxnewsweb.com/C/08/26/62/image_262268.gifEMAIL THIS (http://www.ajc.com/highschool/content/sports/highschool/0704/15dekaspot.html#)
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"I'm not very pleased with it," said Alan Chadwick, who led Marist to the Class AAAA state championship last year and is considered one of the deans of coaching in Georgia.
"Two years ago, everyone was concerned about the heat the kids in uniform and practicing in the heat of the day. Now they moved up everything even further; now it's going to be around 10 weeks before it even starts to cool off. That's a health concern.
"I don't really understand why everything has been moved up two weeks. It was never on my radar screen. I never got an advance warning this was coming down. No one asked my opinion, and if they did, I would've told them that it is not a good thing for many reasons, beginning with the heat."
One of the main reasons the Georgia High School Association moved up the start of football season was so it could finish earlier. Coaches of winter sports such as basketball and wrestling have complained for years that their season is too far under way before football players are able to join the team.
"I think the starting date is totally ridiculous," Lakeside coach Bill Harris said. "It's not like we are in Alaska where the temperature is 60 and 70 degrees in July.
"We're starting before the NFL teams, and I just don't understand it. Next year, we'll probably go out on July Fourth. The state is so concerned about health-related accidents, so why move everything up? It doesn't make sense at all."
Decatur coach Steve Davenport said he usually gives his team a few days off from lifting weights and running before the start of preseason practice, but not this year. It was not an option because of the new date.
"Your biggest concern is getting the kids acclimated to the heat and you can't take any time off at this point because you risk letting someone get out of shape," Davenport said. "This is extremely early in the summer to ask the kids to get out there and practice. I hope and pray that no one gets hurt. I think this whole thing is a little risky."
The new date has caused Davenport to revise his team's preseason preparations. With a scrimmage against Redan looming on Aug. 7, Decatur will be forced to rush through the installation process of the offense and defense.
At Salem, the pushed-up practice time and the new year-round school schedule have caused the team to cancel football camp for the first time in as long as anyone can remember. It's a strange feeling for Salem coach Frank Caputo, who has taken various teams away to camp for the past 26 years.
"Camp is when you get the young men away from home and to build team camaraderie. It seems every year during the season, I am always referring back to something that we worked on or accomplished during camp. I won't be able to give that speech this year."
Caputo's opinion is similar to the other area coaches': Yes, the players are always excited to get started with the preseason, but the heat is a major concern.
"I liked it better the way that it was, but there is nothing we can do to move it back at this point," he said. "It is still mighty hot outside. We've known it was going to be really hot when we started up, so we've really tried to condition the kids as well as we could all summer."
From my dynasty thread (http://dynamic2.gamespy.com/%7Efof/forums/showthread.php?t=13256)...
YAYYYY!!! First day of practice today. It is conditioning only this week. A few comments...
Junior RB/WR/DB Asher Allen ran a 4.43 for the day's fastest time. Asher is benching over 300 pounds, too, and has gotten quite a bit bigger over the summer. B.Y. has already committed to a D-1 school, but I wouldn't be surprised if he didn't end up getting *serious* competition for starting tailback from Asher. This team just keeps reloading with big-time skill position players. http://dynamic2.gamespy.com/%7Efof/forums/images/smilies/eek.gif
FB/NT Hamilton Sims is benching 340 now, and is looking like one big 5'5", 185 pound mass of muscle. He ran a sub-4.6 twice.
Once again, Tucker is going to have to patch an offensive line together, but this time without Coach V. He's been missed much already as a person, but I wouldn't be surprised if he ends up being missed for what he brought to the the table as a coach as well. http://dynamic2.gamespy.com/%7Efof/forums/images/smilies/frown.gif
It must be something in the water in Tucker. 12 scholarship players from a 1200ish-student school, and we'll STILL have a potential D-1 kid at virtually every skill position. http://dynamic2.gamespy.com/%7Efof/forums/images/smilies/smile.gif
This should be an interesting season. I think I mentioned it earlier, but I was talking with several fathers about it again today: Tucker, Marist and Thomas County Central all lost very good senior classes, Statesboro lost their head coach, and Shaw dropped down to AAA. Some mixture of those teams could be your basic AAAA top 5 year in and year out. Last year at this time, it felt like one of Tucker, Marist, Shaw and TCC would win it all, and at the end of the year they were probably the four best teams. At this point this year, it feels like a much more wide-open field.
Having the Dome games on Thanksgiving weekend should be quite interesting. On the one hand, no one will have to miss any school because of them (not that that has *ever* really been an issue. ;)), but on the other, those of us with Yankee in-laws* who don't understand the importance of Georgia High School football may have some interesting family issues when we inform them that we're leaving immediately after eating on Thanksgiving Day. ;)
*--Yes, my in-laws are from a Charleston blue-blood family, but I grew up in Columbus, GA, thank you very much. I'm not sure I trust anyone who grew up north of Newnan.
Early practice date has coaches steamed
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 07/14/04
The area's high school football coaches rarely agree on any subject. However, they are nearly unanimous when the topic is the pushed-up date for this year's preseason practice: They do not like it.
Practice for teams in DeKalb and Rockdale counties begins Monday, which is the state's earliest starting date for the sport.
<!--endclickprintinclude--><TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=2 width=175 align=left border=0><TBODY><TR><TD>http://img.coxnewsweb.com/B/08/31/67/image_767318.jpg (http://www.ajc.com/highschool/content/sports/highschool/0704/Spot_1.html)
KEITH HADLEY / Staff
(ENLARGE) (http://www.ajc.com/highschool/content/sports/highschool/0704/Spot_1.html)
</TD></TR><TR><TD class=caption>High school football players like Tucker's Myke Compton find themselves headed to preseason practice earlier than ever before. The heat is a major concern for area coaches.
</TD></TR><TR><TD><TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=1 width=170 bgColor=#ffffff border=0><TBODY><TR><TD align=middle width=170 bgColor=#cccccc><TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=10 width=168 bgColor=#ffffff border=0><TBODY><TR><TD width=148>http://img.coxnewsweb.com/C/08/26/62/image_262268.gifEMAIL THIS (http://www.ajc.com/highschool/content/sports/highschool/0704/15dekaspot.html#)
http://img.coxnewsweb.com/C/03/27/62/image_262273.gifPRINT THIS (http://www.ajc.com/highschool/content/sports/highschool/0704/15dekaspot.html#)
http://img.coxnewsweb.com/C/04/27/62/image_262274.gifMOST POPULAR (http://www.ajc.com/highschool/content/sports/highschool/0704/15dekaspot.html#)
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></TD><TD width=5>http://www.ajc.com/shared-local/images/1pix_trans.gif</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><!--startclickprintinclude-->
"I'm not very pleased with it," said Alan Chadwick, who led Marist to the Class AAAA state championship last year and is considered one of the deans of coaching in Georgia.
"Two years ago, everyone was concerned about the heat the kids in uniform and practicing in the heat of the day. Now they moved up everything even further; now it's going to be around 10 weeks before it even starts to cool off. That's a health concern.
"I don't really understand why everything has been moved up two weeks. It was never on my radar screen. I never got an advance warning this was coming down. No one asked my opinion, and if they did, I would've told them that it is not a good thing for many reasons, beginning with the heat."
One of the main reasons the Georgia High School Association moved up the start of football season was so it could finish earlier. Coaches of winter sports such as basketball and wrestling have complained for years that their season is too far under way before football players are able to join the team.
"I think the starting date is totally ridiculous," Lakeside coach Bill Harris said. "It's not like we are in Alaska where the temperature is 60 and 70 degrees in July.
"We're starting before the NFL teams, and I just don't understand it. Next year, we'll probably go out on July Fourth. The state is so concerned about health-related accidents, so why move everything up? It doesn't make sense at all."
Decatur coach Steve Davenport said he usually gives his team a few days off from lifting weights and running before the start of preseason practice, but not this year. It was not an option because of the new date.
"Your biggest concern is getting the kids acclimated to the heat and you can't take any time off at this point because you risk letting someone get out of shape," Davenport said. "This is extremely early in the summer to ask the kids to get out there and practice. I hope and pray that no one gets hurt. I think this whole thing is a little risky."
The new date has caused Davenport to revise his team's preseason preparations. With a scrimmage against Redan looming on Aug. 7, Decatur will be forced to rush through the installation process of the offense and defense.
At Salem, the pushed-up practice time and the new year-round school schedule have caused the team to cancel football camp for the first time in as long as anyone can remember. It's a strange feeling for Salem coach Frank Caputo, who has taken various teams away to camp for the past 26 years.
"Camp is when you get the young men away from home and to build team camaraderie. It seems every year during the season, I am always referring back to something that we worked on or accomplished during camp. I won't be able to give that speech this year."
Caputo's opinion is similar to the other area coaches': Yes, the players are always excited to get started with the preseason, but the heat is a major concern.
"I liked it better the way that it was, but there is nothing we can do to move it back at this point," he said. "It is still mighty hot outside. We've known it was going to be really hot when we started up, so we've really tried to condition the kids as well as we could all summer."
From my dynasty thread (http://dynamic2.gamespy.com/%7Efof/forums/showthread.php?t=13256)...
YAYYYY!!! First day of practice today. It is conditioning only this week. A few comments...
Junior RB/WR/DB Asher Allen ran a 4.43 for the day's fastest time. Asher is benching over 300 pounds, too, and has gotten quite a bit bigger over the summer. B.Y. has already committed to a D-1 school, but I wouldn't be surprised if he didn't end up getting *serious* competition for starting tailback from Asher. This team just keeps reloading with big-time skill position players. http://dynamic2.gamespy.com/%7Efof/forums/images/smilies/eek.gif
FB/NT Hamilton Sims is benching 340 now, and is looking like one big 5'5", 185 pound mass of muscle. He ran a sub-4.6 twice.
Once again, Tucker is going to have to patch an offensive line together, but this time without Coach V. He's been missed much already as a person, but I wouldn't be surprised if he ends up being missed for what he brought to the the table as a coach as well. http://dynamic2.gamespy.com/%7Efof/forums/images/smilies/frown.gif
It must be something in the water in Tucker. 12 scholarship players from a 1200ish-student school, and we'll STILL have a potential D-1 kid at virtually every skill position. http://dynamic2.gamespy.com/%7Efof/forums/images/smilies/smile.gif
This should be an interesting season. I think I mentioned it earlier, but I was talking with several fathers about it again today: Tucker, Marist and Thomas County Central all lost very good senior classes, Statesboro lost their head coach, and Shaw dropped down to AAA. Some mixture of those teams could be your basic AAAA top 5 year in and year out. Last year at this time, it felt like one of Tucker, Marist, Shaw and TCC would win it all, and at the end of the year they were probably the four best teams. At this point this year, it feels like a much more wide-open field.
Having the Dome games on Thanksgiving weekend should be quite interesting. On the one hand, no one will have to miss any school because of them (not that that has *ever* really been an issue. ;)), but on the other, those of us with Yankee in-laws* who don't understand the importance of Georgia High School football may have some interesting family issues when we inform them that we're leaving immediately after eating on Thanksgiving Day. ;)
*--Yes, my in-laws are from a Charleston blue-blood family, but I grew up in Columbus, GA, thank you very much. I'm not sure I trust anyone who grew up north of Newnan.