For the first time since last summer, the football team received their pads and helmets for the season. This may impact practices and games during the next few weeks as temperatures outside stay in the triple-digits.
This Monday, July 31, all of the football players received the pads and helmets they would be using for the season. This will impact practices by allowing for more intense drills now that players can perform exercises like blocking, hitting, and tackling. However, the heat will also play a factor as more gear means that it will be more difficult to keep cool.
Before players received their gear, practices were designed to be similar to actual games. However, Coach Joseph Ortiz stated, “Now it’s just real football. Before, it was like seven on seven, touch football. Now that we can actually hit, tackle, and block, we really see what we are made out of.” Players receiving their gear has changed the pace of practices drastically.
Sophomore Devin Sarpy elaborated, saying, “It’s gonna be intense…every time you put on a piece of equipment it gets more intense.” Strengthness will increase with different types of drills, specifically the ones that could not be done before without pads.
Now that players have all the gear they will need, it prepares them for the season much better as well. Sophomore Kaleb Wacha said, “Practices are going to be a lot more fun, we can actually hit each other. [We’re] getting used to the season.”
With the new gear comes a larger issue, the heat. Sarpy explained, “We’ve been doing smaller increments of practicing, with breaks here and there.” Breaking regularity has become much more of a priority Ortiz agreed, “[We have] water breaks within every ten minutes.”
There is danger that comes with practicing in this heat as well. Wacha elaborated, “There is a chance of heat strokes, people are getting dehydrated.” All around, a main priority of coaches and players is staying safe and hydrated.
As time goes on, there will be changes to practices, and the heat will become less of a factor. Ortiz continued, “Once we get through the month of August [the temperature] pretty much goes down, and once we get to September it’s pretty nice.” The remaining days of August will be spent with caution in practices, but once September comes intensity will drop and practices will become safer and more endurable.
The addition of equipment has had and will continue to have a large impact on practices and will prepare players for the season better than before. As long as players are able to keep safe from the heat, practices will be able to continue as they have until the temperatures cool down.
