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Lions to face Coleman Friday in first scrimmage

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By Sam Waller

The Albany Lions football team has moved on to the next phase of its preseason with the commencement of full-contact workouts, and the players will cap their second week with their first intersquad scrimmage.

The Lions will visit Coleman on Friday for a controlled scrimmage in their first taste of outside competition.

Head coach Denney Faith said donning full pads for the first time is something of a new beginning to the preseason.

“We got to put pads on (Monday) and actually got to hit some,” Faith said. “We’ll be a little bit sore. It’s kind of like starting completely over again when you put the pads on.”

Faith said contact work requires a different mindset from the players.

“We want to make sure we stay physical,” he said. “That’ll be a big deal. We want to find out who our physical kids will be, the kids that we can count on.

Physical conditioning also remains a priority this early in the preseason.

“We’re still trying to get in shape,” Faith said. “Even after having two scrimmages and going through practice for three weeks, when we get to that first game it’s going to be hot, and we’ll have kids cramping up. I know we will. We always do.  We’re spending a lot of time just trying to get our kids in shape right now, especially during this hot part of the year.”

The Lions spent most of their first week working out in shorts, T-shirts, and helmets. They finished the week practicing in shells, adding shoulder pads, but were still limited to noncontact drills.

“We had a good first week, kind of got acclimated to the weather a little bit,” Faith said. “We were pretty pleased. Almost everybody’s still coming for practice. We lost a couple, but that always happens.”

 Faith feels that attendance is good, and that the participants are working hard. 

“I think they’re excited and getting ready for a scrimmage this Friday,” the coach said.

Faith said the focus of the second week has been to put players in positions where they could best help the team.

“We’re still looking for some players to fill some different positions,” he said. “There are going to be some kids in some different spots that maybe they haven’t been used to.”

The process could involve moving players to different positions, the coach said.

“We’re going to be evaluating those kinds of things in this first scrimmage, actually the first two scrimmages and probably even into the predistrict games some before we get ready for district,” Faith said. “We’re just trying to get everybody in the right spot and put the best team on the field.” 

The coach explained that a player who was a running back last year might get moved to the line for part of the scrimmage. 

“That’s just the way it is at a small school,” said Faith. “You’ve got to be able to put your best 11 on the field. You can’t have 11 quarterbacks.”

Faith said a position change could lead to some players seeing more action.

“If you want to play, then you may be somewhere that you’re not used to,” he said. “But if you want to get on the field, that’s what you’ve got to do sometimes.”

The Lions will host Hawley on Thursday, Aug. 19 for their second scrimmage before opening the season Aug. 27 at Colorado City. Faith said the scrimmages will help Albany prepare for the first game in several ways.

“The good thing about it is, the things Colorado City does defensively, we’re going to see some of it in our scrimmages,” he said. “That’s going to help us there. We’re going to spend a lot of time on ourselves these first two scrimmages, then we’ll start game-planning that third week when we get ready to go to Colorado City.”

Faith said Friday’s outing at Coleman is a significant step forward in that the Lions will get to face someone else after a week of hitting each other.

“It’s not only outside competition, but it’ll be a lot faster than what we’ve seen in practice,” he said. “The intensity level will pick up. You’ve got to play a lot quicker when you get to those scrimmages, then when you get to the games, it’s even quicker than what the scrimmages are.”

Faith said coaches will be looking to see how players make adjustments on the field and how well they adapt to the pace of play.

“Right now, our varsity kids are going against mostly our JV kids,” he said. “Obviously, the competition level they see in practice is not what we’re going to see in the scrimmage. And even from scrimmages to regular games, the competition and speed of the game and intensity gets a little higher; then as you go through predistrict and get to district, it even gets a little higher.”

The intensity continues to increase the longer the season goes, Faith said.

“It’s kind of like breaking your season into three different seasons, really,” he said. “When you get to district, the intensity level needs to rise. If you play well enough and get into the playoffs, that intensity level gets even higher then.”

Friday’s action will begin at 5:00 p.m. with the junior varsity. The starters will have 15 plays on offense and defense with the backups running 10 plays each way.

The varsity portion will see starters and backups each run 15 plays on each side of the ball with the starters tentatively set to run 10 more plays each way.

“After talking to (Coleman coach John) Elder that could change,” Faith said. “If we want to add some at the scrimmage or get into a goal line situation, we’ll play that by ear. It could be a few more, or it could be a few less.”

Faith said weather conditions will factor into the decision.

“If we think it’s too hot, and kids are falling out because of the heat or whatever, then we’re going to be safe,” he said. “We’ll try to do what’s right and still get our kids ready.”