The Valdosta State football team’s first day in full pads
was cut short due to heavy thunderstorms that rolled through the greater
Valdosta area Friday morning.
The Blazers completed two hours of their scheduled practice
before being called off the field due to lightning. Soon after, heavy rain
soaked the practice fields and forced the Blazers to hold a walk through later
in the afternoon.
Regardless, head coach David Dean was pleased with his team’s
work Friday.
“We had a good walk through period out here and we covered
everything that we were going to cover this morning,” Dean said. “We did get a
good days work.”
Valdosta State will hold its only true two-a-day practice
today. The Blazers will practice this morning at 8:30 a.m. and again tonight at
8 p.m.
With five days of practice under their belts, Dean said he could
see members of the team becoming fatigued, both physically and mentally.
As for today’s practices, Dean said the players will be
challenged because of the two-practice schedule, the Blazers’ only scheduled
two-a-day of the preseason.
“I told the guys, ‘it is going to be tough because you haven’t
done that,’” Dean said. “Their legs are tired, mentally they are a little
fatigued. I told them (Saturday) is the day of separation. We find who is going
to step up and get better and make this team better. We find out who can push
through and get better in both practices that we have, no just one of them.”
Despite the fatigue, Dean said Friday afternoon’s walk through
went well, and the team learned from its mistakes.
“We made a lot of mistakes, which is typical for things you
do early on,” Dean said. “And that was good for us to be able to do that walk
through. I thought it was good. We didn’t have any substitution problems, which
is always one of those things when you go back and look at practice is one of
those mental aspects — not having guys on the field. We didn’t have that. We were
all lined up out there correctly.”
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