VALDOSTA —
The Valdosta football team is continuing to work, in preparation for the start of fall practice next week.
The Wildcats have been holding voluntary summer workouts Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays nearly every week this summer.
The Wildcats lift weights and do conditioning drills at every workout, then head to the practice field to work on football for about 90 minutes. During that time on the practice field, the coaches have a chance to teach schemes and drills on both sides of the ball, and the players have a chance to practice plays and schemes.
Valdosta head coach Rance Gillespie believes his team is making progress.
“I think we’re progressing well. I really do,” Gillespie said. “Your (offseason) kind of goes through phases. Really our first phase is our offseason (workouts), leading up to spring football. Spring ball is the second phase. Then summer time in between the end of spring and the fourth of July is really another phase, where there’s a lot of teaching going on. Now we’ve really kind of entered a fourth phase, where we’re trying to amp up some stuff and really get them ready for what’s fixing to come, with practice starting next week. The pace is increasing, and hopefully we’ve kind of got an idea of what’s going on in a lot of areas.
“I’m really pleased with where we’re at. We’ve had a couple of good days this week. I thought we had a really good day (Tuesday). The kids brought a lot of juice to practice, and got going and had a good mentality.”
The Wildcats will go on the road today for some passing league competition. First, they will head to Cairo for a few passing league games. Then they will drive from Cairo to Moultrie to compete in a two-day passing league tournament.
Gillespie looks forward to the competitions.
“(The Cairo trip) will give us an opportunity to rep younger kids. And then we’ll go to Moultrie (this) afternoon and get some more reps (for our varsity),” he said. “The past two years, (the tournament in Moultrie) worked really well for us. I think it’s a good way to kick off the (fall) season.
“(The players) love it any time you can compete. Any time you get a chance to go against somebody else, it breaks the monotony of going against your own team.”
The Wildcats lost three of their top four wide receivers from last year, as well as their starting tight end and their top two pass-catching backs, so the passing league games are also an opportunity for quarterback Shelby Wilkes and this year’s group of receivers and backs to get some more repetitions before fall practice starts.
Inclement weather canceled Valdosta’s passing league game with Thomas County Central on Tuesday.
Fall practice is not far away. The first official fall workout will be next Wednesday. The Wildcats will do five days of workouts in shorts and shirts, then the pads come on and full contact drills begin on Aug. 1.
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Valdosta’s Tim McLane runs with the ball after making a catch during a summer workout session. Paul Leavy | The Valdosta Daily Times
Discussion
Summer workouts continue for ’Cats
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