8-8-04 Brian Vaughn
A cloudy August day in the mid eighties greeted the Bulldogs as they put the pads on for the first time this season and head coach Rick Jones said sometimes a cloudy cool day for two-a-days is better than anything Vince Lombardi could say to get a team motivated.
The Bulldogs are now less than 30 days from opening the 2004 season with Shiloh Christian on September 3rd and Coach Jones knows there's a lot of work to do before then.
"I think we'll go ahead and practice the rest of the preseason, " said a smiling Jones after practice on Thursday. "We weren't a very well oiled machine today."
Jones said that by Friday afternoon though that the entire Bulldog playbook would be installed.
"We throw the big picture at them and then work the fine points," said Jones.
Sixty-five players are out for fall practice for the Bulldogs, but the head coach would like to see more coming out.
"Football is a demanding sport and we made a lot of demands on the kids during the summer." Jones said. "There's a number of kids that decided they did not want to do that."
Jones puts his team through a long and fast paced practice schedule. If you attend a Bulldog practice one thing you will hear loud and often is, "On the ball! On the ball!" from Coach Jones.
Jones doesn't like to waste any time between plays, he wants the ball back on the hash and ready to be snapped as soon as the whistle is blown on the current play.
Instead of having his team go through the traditional two-a-days Coach Jones has he's team on campus for six hours at a time. He says this is a better way to do it as it keeps the team together during the day and makes it easier on parents who have to transport their kids to practice and saves time having to tape up players as it will only need to be done once daily.
"It's worked really well," said Jones on his practice schedule.
One of the most talked about subjects around Greenwood and on statewide high school message boards is, "Who will be the starting quarterback for Greenwood this season, senior Micah Fritsche or junior Daniel Stegall?"
It maybe on a lot of other people's minds, but those involved just want to win football games.
Coach Jones says he's not looking for just a starting quarterback, that he's looking at the big picture of who are the best eleven guys he can put on the field to give the team the best chance to win.
"A lot of times you don't make a decision on who's the best quarterback. You make the decision based upon on if we play this guy at quarterback, what do we do a safety," said Jones.
Jones added that once as a head coach he had one season where he had two quarterbacks the he rotated every series, he however isn't looking to do it again this year, but the possibility is there.
"In terms of ability, we've got two good quarterbacks. There's no doubt about that," says Jones.
Both Fritsche and Stegall have been getting equal snaps at quarterback and have been getting practice time at free safety.
The Bulldogs went to a late afternoon practice schedule this week, practicing from 3-8 PM and will stay on the schedule until school starts on the 19th.
Bulldog Media Day for all players and cheer squads 7th-12th grades is on Saturday starting at 7:30 AM.
The varsity Bulldogs will hold their blue-white scrimmage at Smith-Robinson Stadium on Saturday starting at 7 PM.
