Photos
Blog
Newsletters
High school football coaches relax, but not for long
bparker@beaufortgazette.com
843-986-5536
Carlos Cave used the time to take in Okatie Elementary School's version of "101 Dalmatians." Jeremy West has replaced his weekend slate of meetings by spending quality time with his wife and dogs. And Mark Clifford? Well, after undergoing knee surgery earlier this week, he's been reclining in his La-Z-Boy, reading a book about New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick.
E-Mail it
Print it
tool name
closeAlso in this section
By the sound of things, local football coaches are making the most of the slower pace that comes after the season's end. But don't be fooled, for very few "off" moments make up the current offseason period.
"I'm 365 football," said Cave, head coach at Battery Creek High School. "I'm trying to get the kids to develop the same attitude, because the season never really stops, whether they are playing another sport or getting in the weight room. I don't believe in my football players being idle."
The same goes for the coaches, who have spent recent weeks finalizing stats, doing equipment inventory and making one final recruitment push for their senior players.
Of course, with no Lowcountry team making it to this year's title games, there's also the challenge of shaking off the sting from the season's outcome.
"Every season either ends really good in the state championship or really bad if you lose early, so there's a time of mental therapy in getting your mind off that last loss," said Clifford, whose Beaufort High School team was upset in the first round of the Class 4-A Division II playoffs. "The locker room and equipment stuff has to be done every year, and that's good, because if I just sat around and did nothing, I'd probably start beating myself up."
Clifford does admit that things have been a lot quieter during this offseason, which comes as no surprise considering the Eagles' run to the title game in 2007. Forget reading books or cleaning up his knee. Clifford's schedule was booked with parades, special appearances and interviews.
This year's early exit has made for a slightly different approach for Beaufort High's coach while he evaluates the strengths and weaknesses on this year's team and within the program.
"Nobody's happy with us losing in the first round of the playoffs, but it gives us a more realistic motivation for next year to make it out of the first round," said Clifford, who plans on meeting with each of his players next month to discuss their futures. "This past year, everybody was talking about us getting back to state and winning it to get revenge. And I'm thinking, heck, just getting there is hard enough."
West and his Bluffton High School team can attest to that. It's been nearly a month since the Bobcats last took the field, as they went 2-8 to miss the playoffs for the second straight season. Since then, West has cleared tackling dummies off the field and cleaned out the locker room, creating the sometimes-eerie feeling that surfaces when the weekly football grind comes to a halt.
But even though West gets home earlier these days and has a lot less in the way of game planning, it hasn't stopped him from searching for an explanation to the Bobcats' eight-game losing streak to end the season. So far, he's decided to give his squad a four-week period of downtime until the week after Thanksgiving, when the Bobcats will begin 45-minute training sessions in the weight room at 6:30 a.m. on Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
"We might have worn their legs down too much in the offseason and preseason last year," West said. "So we're going to do more flexibility things and just get them in the weight room early. We also are going to focus on learning how to watch film correctly and teach them the game, because we missed some fundamental things last year."
No doubt the mirror of scrutiny will be a bit wider for Lowcountry football coaches, who will look to rekindle the promise that characterized the start of the 2008 campaign and, this time, ignite that spark into a championship.
"We went at it pretty hard this year, so there's been some downtime right now," said Cave, whose Dolphins ended a four-year playoff drought. "Our expectation is to get stronger, and with the kids we have returning, we're looking to get a better product on the field next year to improve on what we established this past season."
@Nyx.CommentBody@