The Palestine Herald
May 25, 2008 04:37 pm
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By SCOTT TYLER
H-P Sports Editor
In the spring of 2007, Tommy Allison stood on the football field at Cayuga High School, getting his first glances at his new football team.
By the end of the school year, Allison was on the job as head football coach for about a month and during that time, he was trying to install expectations and observing his new players, trying to get a feel for what they could and could not do.
A year later, it is a different story for Allison as the Wildcats are finishing their spring workouts.
“It has been a lot easier this spring,” Allison said. “I know the kids, they know me and they know what to expect.”
With more than 75 percent of the Wildcat players returning from last year’s team, the coaching staff has not had to spend time this spring teaching the system.
“The first day, we were able to go through drills and the kids picked it up immediately,” Allison said. “With so many returners makes it easier going into next season.”
Last spring, Allison spent the athletic period slowly taking his team through the basics of the offense and defense. The players would not dive into the complexity of the schemes until two months later during two-a-day practices.
But now, with the teaching out of the way, the coaching staff can speed the pace up and concentrate on more specific elements of the game.
“The kids know the system so now it is a matter of getting better and not spending time on teaching,” the Cayuga head coach said. “Instead of spending countless hours of our time teaching the basics, we can immediately get into running our football program.”
Cayuga has not had a great amount of time to spend on football with TAKS testing, weather and the deep run in the playoffs for the baseball team. But when the Wildcats have gotten onto the field during the athletic period, they have been working on both individual and team drills.
“We are continuing to work a lot on our agility and getting better feet,” Allison said. “And at the end of every period we are running a team setting.”
Along with finishing their spring workouts, a handful of the Wildcat skill players also are participating in 7-on-7 football, which will run through the first month of the summer.
“We want them to be cohesiveness with each other,” Allison said of 7-on-7. “We are looking for our quarterback and wide receivers to get their timing back and work on their routes.”
During Cayuga’s summer workouts — including weight lifting and conditioning — Allison said he wants to see his players be ready for the start of practice in August.
“We want to maintain where we are at now,” Allison said. “We have had a great spring where we have gotten faster and stronger and we need to stay that way when we start practice.
“Otherwise we will have to spend the first half of the season getting the kids where they need to be and we don’t want to do that.”
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Scott Tyler may be contacted via e-mail at styler@palestineherald.com
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