Dan Takes a "Tour" of Five Schools in the Opening Week of Football!
(Aug. 11, 2008) - Ah Two-A-Days!
The prep football season returned to Loudoun last week with the first official week of practice for the fall 2008 season.
Of course, if you believe that there really was an offseason for football, then I have a house here in Ashburn for you that has increased its value the past year.
For better or worse, football is a year-round endeavor and most teams started on the 2008 season the day after the 2007 campaign ended. Offseason weight lifting, 7-on-7 passing leagues, summer team camps and more have gone into last week’s official opening.
In the first week I was able to get out to five schools and watch some early practices. My photographer Alysia Deem and I hit Freedom, Loudoun County, Dominion, Potomac Falls and then Loudoun Valley. This week, while Alysia is dining on Maine lobster on a family vacation way up North, I will be going to Briar Woods, Heritage, Park View and then covering the scrimmage Friday night between Broad Run and Stone Bridge.
That scrimmage may be one of the most talked about “games” of the season as it pits Ashburn neighbors BR and SB, two teams that went a combined 19-1 in the regular season with the AA Dulles District champion Spartans having their undefeated dream season ruined by rival Park View in the first round of the playoffs and the AAA Liberty District champion Bulldogs rolling through five straight playoff wins to capture the school’s first ever state football title.
Did we mention that SB coach Mickey Thompson went to BR? Or that most of the kids on both teams grew up on the fields of the Ashburn Youth Football League. You gotta love a scrimmage that carries bragging rights!
(FYI: Here is our football preview plan. We are going to release one preview per day starting Aug. 18 and leading up to the start of the football season on Aug. 28).
Of course until the pads are strapped on the offseason workouts can’t really be judged. That WR that looked like the second coming of Art Monk in the 7-on-7 may have hands of stone with full gear on and no peripheral vision with his helmet on. The lineman that looked like a beast in the weight room may not be able to take more than two steps before falling down like the Yeti taken down by some Tibetan archers.
Two-a-days remind me of my old varsity football coach in California, Ned Permenter who posted 220 wins in his 36-year coaching career in Bakersfield. Permenter loved the start of the football season and as we lay itching in the mixture of grassy stubble, dirt and rocks that served as our practice field … he would remind us that Bear Bryant’s boys were doing the same drills in half t-shirts because they loved the feel of the insects. I’m not sure that helped us cope with the San Joaquin Valley insects that took to us like boll weevils to cotton.
I didn’t see any boll weevils in South Riding when I visited on Aug. 1 which is good as AD Rusty Lowery was checking out the new turf installed on Freedom’s stadium field. Both Freedom and Park View got Bermuda grass put in and in Sterling it was a much needed field improvement. You may remember, that the Patriots field had such poor drainage issues that two years ago PV had to move its playoff game with Louisa to Heritage in Leesburg. We won’t talk about that last-second field goal the Lions made.
The biggest news coming out of Freedom’s first practice was that head coach Tom McIntyre has taken over the coaching of the offensive line and Eagle baseball coach Chris Bourassa has come in to become the offensive coordinator. Bourassa previously was an assistant at Washington-Lee. This McIntyre-Bourassa combination for the Eagle offense is very promising, especially with two running backs returning who combined for a 1,000 yards (Jeff Pugh and T.J. Mizell).
I should also mention that Bourassa is also the inspiration behind the “Play to Win” project that is seeking Loudoun County approval on a special exception application to build six outdoor athletic fields, as well as offices and training facilities, on 40 acres in Ashburn between Belmont Ridge Road and Goose Creek.
(Read about it in the Leesburg Today coverage in these two articles:
http://www.leesburg2day.com/articles/2008/07/29/news/fp456fields072908.txt
http://www.leesburg2day.com/articles/2008/08/11/sports/sp9992fields070808.txt
As a parent who has had to sit through a soccer game at the Dulles Sportsplex that started at 11 p.m. (yes!) or has to drive to up Belmont Ridge road weekly, past the proposed site, for a soccer practice in Leesburg, I am all for it. Loudoun simply needs more athletic fields and I think Bourassa, a successful entrepreneur before he went into education, will do it right. In fact, Bourassa just send out this message to the youth sports community:
As we move forward during the month of August in anticipation of a vote on September 2, I wanted to reach out to you to each of you who live in Loudoun County to follow the link below to electronically sign a petition urging the Board of Supervisors to vote YES on the Play To Win legislative applications during the September 2 board meeting allowing more fields and recreational facilities to be built using private funds in Ashburn, VA.
Please forward this link to any co-workers, employees, family, friends or other Loudoun County residents and request that they too sign the petition.
As always, thank you for your continued support.
Chris
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=nyyDGxuMHuRj_2f9iB9_2f0A7g_3d_3d
OK … back to football!
Our next stop was Loudoun County High School on Aug. 4 and it was good to see that all-district performer Chase Williams was back for the Raiders despite his father, former Washington Redskins defensive guru Gregg Williams, taking a job elsewhere after not getting the Skins head coaching gig.
The Raiders made strides last year in coach Todd Hill’s first season and as they walked out to their first practice, they could hear the sounds of the Raider volleyball team, undefeated state title winners in 2007, going through their tryouts in the gym.
Like many schools, LC has a special first day drill and Hill calls it “Campus Tour”. Players were broken into five groups after warming up and went through the 30-minute drill (rotating every five minutes). Old-time football players would have recognized most of the stations, especially the classic “up-downs” or “Green “Bay’s” as we called them. There were also windsprints, a group doing planks (a favorite of my Velocity workouts in the morning and I have the scrapes on my forearms to prove it), a weave drill station and a pro-style three-cone drill.
Hill’s message before the Campus Tour was simple: “Anything less than 100 percent is unacceptable.” For many first-time Raider football players this season-opening drill was an eye-opener.
Later on the afternoon of Aug. 4 it was time to meet Dominion new football coach Karl Buckwalter. Much like finding out that Chase Williams was back at LC, it was good to see rising sophomore RB sensation Deandre Reaves (or is it DeAndre?) back for the Titans. The area’s leading rusher, Reaves scored 100 points despite the Titans finishing the year with six straight defeats.
While Buckwalter was known for his “Midnight Madness” first practices at Colonial Forge, Dominion got underway in semi-hot conditions as August has been kind to the players with the humidity on vacation thus far. The biggest news to emerge from this first day of training is that Dominion had baseball star Chris Taylor out for the team and the senior was expected to make a run at starting quarterback. We know he has a strong arm from his exploits on the baseball diamond.
Buckwalter was clear to his players on their 2008 goal: “We are going to make a name for ourselves in Loudoun County.” He then put his players through a drill like County’s Campus Tour and it was called “Fourth Quarter”. Eight stations were set-up.
“When you get to the fourth quarter, you will be ready,” Buckwalter said.
The next morning, it was time to head to Potomac Falls and see what coach Scott Woodlief had in store for Panther fans as he started his third season. I remember interviewing Woodlief before he came from the Tidewater area to take the job and he said that with his college coaching experience, his practices would be geared toward a college set-up vs. what you might see in some high schools.
And on Day One there seemed to be confident, almost business-like approach as the Panthers got it going. Woodlief’s son Greg is back at QB and he has his top three targets back in Chad McMichael, Chris Pelto and Tarrell Owens. The Panthers could be a real wildcard in the Dulles District race and should be exciting to watch.
And while some schools had their players in practice jerseys from day one, the Panthers were going through their paces with some players going shirtless … considering the amount of insects swarming around the school … Ned Permenter would have loved that!
Watching Woodlief teaching a group on the proper stance was something I would see over and over from head coaches. These first weeks are about teaching and technique and form. Most of the X’s and O’s come later and won’t mean a thing if the players can’t properly execute.
And you could hear a coach imploring his athletes that the other programs were working just as hard … something you will hear at all 10 schools … only this was the PF cross country coach Dolph Null. Both his boys and girls are ranked in the state this season and he has the area’s top two runners back in Josh hardin and Christina Lee.
“Jamestown is working hard. Western Albemarle is working hard,” said Null as Woodlief, in a t-shirt that read “Power Punishes. Speed Kills”, and his players headed to the lockerroom.
Finally, it was time to drive out to Purcellville and see new coach Danny McGrath start his first varsity practice.
McGrath, a Herndon grad and former Virginia Tech captain, takes over the Vikes at age 25. And yes, he was getting tired of all the questions about his age. If you could, he would have printed up a fake ID that listed his age as 35 (but hopefully not under the name McLovin … and yes, that is a reference to the movie Superbad).
And while it was about players returning at some of the other schools I visited, the story at LV was a bit about that fact that two players that would have been key this season, Nick Sheehan and Matt Custer, had both transferred to Stone Bridge. The speedy Sheehan played QB and WR last year and Custer was listed at 6-foot-5, 264-pounds as a junior lineman. Both Sheehan and Custer will make a return trip to Purcellville when Stone Bridge visits LV on Sept. 19. Now that should be interesting!
McGrath didn’t have time to worry about who wasn’t on the field as he and his new staff, put together in just the past couple weeks as McGrath wasn’t hired until a month ago, were about to start the process of getting to know their players. And from sophomores to seniors … they were all new to McGrath. With a clean slate, it makes for an interesting month of practices in Purcellville and it may be a saving grace that the Vikes are the only school in Loudoun to open the regular season in Sept. and not August. They will need that extra week.
“We are going to identify our leaders and then sit down with them,” said McGrath.
McGrath, who coached for Andy Hill at Park View last year, was comfortable coaching the offensive lineman on this first day. He made the proper stance and technique for stepping to block look effortless. A lot of hard work will make things look easy. McGrath combined hard work and intelligence to become successful in football and it looks like he will rely on that combination in his coaching career.
He showed in this first practice that he had some flexibility. At one pointing saying: “I’m going to change this drill up. I don’t like the way it’s working.”
There is a lot of “getting-to-know-you” that will take place. At one point, McGrath called a player “Garrett” … “It’s Alex” the player countered … McGrath said good naturedly “whatever”.
As the Vikes broke into offensive and defensive groups it was clear there was a numbers problem. It was a thin group at DB and OL and there were more WRs than miles between Purcellville and Sterling.
As one players dropped a ball … a coach could be heard to say: “Some of you may be on defense by this time tomorrow.”
It was really the basics, like it is everywhere in the first week, but McGrath has to show the program has he wants things done. Starting with … “this is how we will huddle” … and going on down the line.
Maybe a good sign was a player saying as the light faded and the practice field became dark: “Why is it getting dark? We need light.”
Like Campus Tour and Fourth Quarter … McGrath had his own special first day drills but they would be inside the two gyms and wrestling room. Called Viking Pride. Before they started that … McGrath addressed his new players as the last bit of light fled to the Shenandoah Valley.
“Good work. We got a lot of stuff done. This starts our journey,” said McGrath. “We will take it slow, making sure it is done right.”
McGrath walked toward the gym and expressed relief that his first ever varsity practice as a head coach was out of the way.
“It was all I could hope for,” said McGrath.
Of course he said he couldn’t wait to see how the players reacted the second day and how they reacted to the first day in pads and how they reacted to the first real hot day.
A lot of firsts at Valley this year but they will have to take them one day at a time … er, actually two-days-at-a-time but you get the idea.
Read past Huddle Up entries here.
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