VALDOSTA —
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 the rest of the practice was called off 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 day’s 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. on their practice fields.
With five days of practice under their belts, Dean said he could see members of the football 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, not 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.”
For more on the Blazers, visit www.blazersportsbeat.com and follow @Ed_Hooper on Twitter.
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Valdosta State linemen work on blocking during practice on Friday morning at the VSU practice fields. Ed Hooper | The Valdosta Daily Times
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