Friday, October 03, 2008
This week at Hopkins County Central football practice, the Storm are not preparing for an opponent because the team has a bye week. Instead, Central has focused on ways to avoid beating itself.
Five weeks into the season, Central stands at 3-2, and are using the bye to refocus and re-energize for their second half of the season.
“We’re just trying to prepare, going back and looking at ourselves and trying to improve on things we’re not doing well and trying to get some kids healthy,” Central coach Rick Snodgrass said.
The week began Monday with running, lifting and a film session. Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday practices, however, were “full-go,” although Snodgrass opted to give the players an extra dose of conditioning.
The team has also given extra attention to technique and getting to the football this week.
Although practice has been a little different this week, Snodgrass said it’s not a large change, and it’s important to keep the schedule orderly in such a “routine-oriented” sport.
For the players, conditioning may be something they have not worked on since summer practice, but junior Lucas Duncan understands its goals.
“You get stronger and have to keep on going, not give up,” Duncan said of the running drills. “It’s hard, but it’s worth it I guess at the end.”
Junior defensive end Anthony Qualls said he shared a similar perspective.
“We’re just staying fit and getting prepared the best we can,” he said.
Instead of strapping on the pads tonight, some players will travel to watch Central’s next opponent, Lone Oak, play at Todd County Central.
“We’ll go down as a coaching staff and normally we have several kids show up and watch it,” Snodgrass said.
“We just try to tell them not to get too caught up in looking at personnel, look at what they’re doing because it’s hard to judge personnel when eyeballing them and you’re not a coach, you’re not used to it.”
Duncan, listed as a two-way player at wide receiver and defensive back, said he plans to attend the game and will watch his position.
“Just to see what he does, read what he does and how he does it, so I can better understand when I go at him, so I can read him better, study off him,” he said.
Qualls, a defensive end, said in addition to observing his spot on the field, he’ll be looking at the abilities of the Purple Flash.
“We’re watching our position, like I’ll watch the O-lineman because I play D-end and I’ll watch what he does,” Qualls said. “Just seeing how they’re working...I know they have a good quarterback, but it’s going to let us see if he can do it for real.”
Qualls and Duncan said they plan to spend the rest of the weekend “laid back” and might watch a college or NFL game or even go to the movies.
As for Snodgrass, he took advantage of his mid-season free time last week to attend the first ever football match-up between the University of Kentucky and Western Kentucky University.
“We didn’t have prep this weekend, so I got the opportunity – I actually went up and watched UK and Western play this weekend,” he said. “Normally, we’re pretty busy on the weekends, but I took off Saturday and then the coaches came in and we rated our film on Sunday.”
Since the team focused this week on itself, next week will be entirely devoted to breaking down Lone Oak.
Until then, Central’s only concern will be on working on ways to improve and give some time to players who have been nicked up.
“We use it to condition and we use it to refocus and work on fundamentals,” Snodgrass said. “We’ve been banged up the last two or three weeks, and hopefully it’s going to give our guys a chance to heal up a little bit and be fresh and healthy going into the meat of our district schedule.”
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