Published: August 16, 2008 01:24 am            

Time to get physical

Hornets pumped about putting on pads, getting after it in intrasquad workouts today

Kevin Butcher described the Hornets’ first full-contact practice as sluggish. The former linebacker who has moved to cornerback this season blamed a late-afternoon rain shower for putting a slight damper on the team’s two-hour workout Friday.

Butcher then got a gleam in his eyes when he turned his attention toward today’s scrimmage.

“We weren’t trying to hit hard today. We’re saving that for tomorrow,” Butcher said of today’s intrasquad workouts which kick off at 9 a.m. at Huntsville High School with the freshman and junior varsity teams. The workout concludes with a varsity scrimmage at about 10:15.

“Today’s practice was a little drowsy and a little droopy due to the weather,” Butcher added. “We’re going to get rested and ready to go for the scrimmage.”

Huntsville coach Mitchell Coey said he was not disappointed in his team’s drowsy and droopy performance Friday. That’s par for the course, the coach explained, at the end of a long opening week.

“Everybody’s legs are tired,” Coey said. “Today we got an opportunity to hit each other and that gave the guys some extra incentive and some juice. But their legs are just gone.”

The varsity Hornets hit the field at 6 p.m. Friday and spent an hour working on defense. They switched fields and concentrated on offense for 45 minutes or so before finishing the evening practice by running sprints on the field that was wet from a late-afternoon storm.

Coey expects the Hornets to have a little more pep in their steps this morning when they buckle down and start preparing for the season opener on Sept. 6 at College Park.

“I want to see them get physical, and I want to see how far along they are both offensively and defensively,” he said. “Defensively, I want to see what they’ve retained with our new stuff. The guys seem to like the defense. They’re enthused by what we’ve put in already. They like it because we’re going to be an attacking-type defense.

“Offensively, it’s just a lot of repetition. I want to see them execute what we’ve got in there so far.”

The Hornets said they’re glad to have the first four days of practice behind them. There’s only so much a team can accomplish in T-shirts and shorts. The Hornets had been anxiously awaiting the loud pops that come with putting on pads, and they are fired up about going full speed in front of a crowd of diehard fans.

“We’re going to have some fun tomorrow,” said senior Johnny Walker, who has moved from receiver to the hammer, or defensive end, position.

“We just need to come out and get better. Tomorrow’s scrimmage is another chance to get better,” middle linebacker Shaquille Ross added. “We all hope to get something out of it, but we have to take it serious and leave it all on the field just like it’s a real game.”

        

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