Published: August 19, 2008 11:15 pm            

Feeling right at home

Hornets practice at Bowers Stadium for first time

The second he saw two buses parked outside the Joe Clements Field House, Huntsville fullback Travis Rex knew Tuesday was going to be a good day. Rex didn’t know where the Hornets were headed; he just knew they were going to load up and go somewhere to work out on what had been a rainy day in Walker County.

“I got excited when I first saw the buses, then when we pulled up here at Bowers, it was like, ‘Oh man, this is going to be just like game day,’” Rex said after a two-hour-plus practice at Bowers Stadium, home of the Sam Houston State Bearkats and the site of Huntsville’s home football games.

Well, it wasn’t exactly like game day, but for the Hornets, who have only been in full pads for four days, it was close enough.

Huntsville’s varsity and junior varsity teams are preparing for controlled scrimmages against Conroe, scheduled Friday night at Buddy Moorhead Stadium. A change of scenery Tuesday not only got the Hornets out of the muddy bog that is the main practice field at Huntsville High School, but it also raised the level of enthusiasm for an otherwise mundane weekday practice.

“There was a good feeling out here today. It was cooler, plus there was like a Friday night atmosphere,” center Jimmy Spivey said. “We got a lot of work done today.”

Huntsville coach Mitchell Coey agreed with his players’ assessments. After slopping around in the mud Monday, the coach decided early Tuesday to move his team’s practice to Bowers Stadium where it was damp, but not messy on the soft field turf surface.

“We’ve been on the mushy dirt, and today it got even more saturated,” Coey said. “Working out in the stadium where we play our games gave the guys a boost.

“Basically, we just worked on alignment and execution today. We also worked with the offensive linemen, and they got a whole lot better today. We narrowed the gap between linemen to help them out a little and went over everything again. They seem to be picking it up better. I saw a big improvement in the offensive line today.”

Coey said the Hornets will be ready for Friday’s scrimmage, which starts with the freshman teams at 5 p.m. The junior varsity Hornets will clash with Conroe starting at 6 p.m., and the varsity squads square off at 7:30.

Barring more bad weather, the Hornets will work out at HHS today from 5 to 8 p.m., then hold a brief morning practice Thursday and get ready for the rival Tigers.

“We need to have a scrimmage against somebody else to see exactly where we are,” Coey said.

The Hornets say they feel pretty good about their progress to this point.

“Our whole team, offensively and defensively, is ready to play,” Spivey said. “We’ve got a lot of players who haven’t been on the field for a varsity game, and this will help them get prepared for the season.”

Rex, who played on the varsity team last fall, added, “The pace on the varsity level is just up a notch. When you come out in practice and work out with the varsity team for the first time, you notice the pace is a lot faster. But against other teams, that pace picks up another notch, and that’s why these scrimmages are important for us.

“We need to get ready for Friday night.”

        

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