To help his 110 football players endure the first day of contact drills Thursday, Benedictine coach Danny Britt called for some carb-loading on the menu.
“We had pizza last night, pizza for lunch and spaghetti tonight, so they’re carbed up, I’m guessing,” Britt said before the second practice of two-a-days Thursday, the first day area high school teams could wear full gear.
These seniors and underclassmen were carbed up, suited up and ready to hit after five days of conditioning as prescribed by the Georgia High School Association. Britt said Thursday’s first practice, which began at 6:15 a.m., was in half shells (helmet and shoulder pads only), so the players “did a lot of technique stuff to make sure they’re ready to hit tonight.”
“We got after it pretty well,” junior quarterback Stevie Powers said of the two-hour sunrise session. “It was intense. It was good for us.”
As much as they are physically prepared, the Cadets are fortified emotionally by last season’s finish. The first Benedictine team since 1996 to win a playoff game, the Cadets went 8-4 and finished No. 11 in The Associated Press Class AA state rankings.
For all of their achievements, losing their last game Nov. 23 in the second round of the postseason — 24-21 at Lamar County on a 47-yard field goal with 1.6 seconds left — still stings.
“It’s definitely fuel for us this year,” said Tristan Harkleroad, a senior left tackle. “It’s a marker to get past. But we don’t want to just get to the second round again and lose. That’s not our goal, or to get to the third game. We’re going to take it one game at a time and, hopefully, we’ll get farther than we did last year.”
Powers, who assumed starting quarterback duties as a sophomore last season, went on to play basketball for the Cadets, and then was a standout left-handed pitcher for BC’s strong playoff run in the spring. But he was anxious to get back to football.
“I wasn’t ready to make the transition into basketball, honestly,” Powers said. “I think a lot of guys still have that (loss) in the backs of our minds, for sure, especially the guys that were there and witnessed it.
“That was tough but that’s what we’re here for today, to work through that, get back to that position and make a bigger push through the playoffs this year. That’s our goal.”
Early wakeup
The players reported Wednesday night and brought air mattresses or sleeping bags, as they are spending nights together in the BC gymnasium until Saturday afternoon. They were awoken at 5:30 a.m. Thursday for the big day ahead.
After breakfast, some down time, lunch, walk-through sessions for special teamers, more down time and dinner provided by boosters, the players reported to the practice field at 6:30 p.m. for stretching.
Then the hitting began with a popular full-contact drill called “Oklahoma.” It’s 3-on-3 in a 5-yard-wide space, with a ball-carrying running back and two linemen against two linemen and a linebacker or defensive back.
Collisions were unavoidable, encouraged and reinforced with coaches hollering, leaping in the air and slapping players’ shoulders and helmets after particularly hard and well-executed tackles or blocks.
At a water break, two players recounted their one-on-one battle, while another noted his brand new jersey already has holes, and still another smiled and said to no one in particular, “That was too much fun.”
There will be aches and pains ahead, no doubt, with today’s single full-contact scrimmage followed by two-a-days Saturday. Harkleroad, at 6-foot-2 and 280 pounds, said he’s ready for it, and he’s sharing his experience with younger players.
“I tell them it’s going to be rough the first day, but fight through it,” Harkleroad said. “ By the second day, you’ll be used to it and it won’t be as bad. In the mornings, you’ve got that voice in the back of your head, you just want to stay in bed, but you can’t. You’ve just got to get up and go.”