SUMMER PREPS: Catholic keeping busy as preseason workouts arrive
New Catholic coach Jonathan Chandler works through the latest 7-on-7 camp against Bullock County. (Tim Gayle)
By TIM GAYLE
After competing in 7-on-7s at Troy and Samford, Catholic coach Jonathan Chandler and his Knights were looking forward to their final 7-on-7 at North Alabama that begins on Thursday.
First, however, Chandler would put the team through drills on its practice field on Wednesday against Bullock County in an organized team activity.
“There are a couple of new things we’re working on in our run game,” Chandler said. “Then, too, we’re going up to Florence to a 7-on-7 so we didn’t throw it around as much today in our full team setting. We were very situational today with our third down and red zone.
“Any time you can compete against somebody else and get some reps, it changes the mindset a little bit. If there’s anything we need to work on, it’s our energy starting out. Today, we didn’t have the music. I told our guys it’s BYOE -- bring your own energy. We have to go to St. Clair County (in the upcoming season) and I’ve never been, we have to go to Pensacola Catholic, so you just have to prepare for those things. I changed that up on them today and challenged them to have that energy.
“I thought we struggled in that regard a little bit. It’s really the first time this summer we’ve practiced without music. Well, you don’t play (a regular-season game) with music, so you’ve got to get used to it.”
Catholic won the 7-on-7 at Troy in mid-June and was 3-1 in pool play at Samford before inclement weather cut short the event. In Thursday’s 7-on-7 in Florence, the Knights will face Tupelo (Miss.) High, Battleground Academy, Mars Hill Bible and Austin High, so a brief Wednesday morning encounter with Bullock County was a carefully scripted event for the Knights.
“Bullock County does a couple of things that I know we’re going to see this year on offense and on the defensive side of the ball,” Chandler said. “They’re one-high (safety) on defense, they’ve got a mobile quarterback. I know we’ll see those things (in the regular season) and we haven’t seen that this summer.
“That’s my thought process of setting up some of these OTAs. I know going up to Opelika, it’s going to be very structured, very situational. Today, it was seeing a mobile quarterback, making sure on defense we’re all in the right places.”
Chandler has planned each week of the Knights’ summer workouts with an eye on the regular season, working on opponents as the team continues to work on improving itself.
“I think a lot of schools do that now, take each week (in the regular season) and break it down,” Chandler said. “Yeah, we’re going out there and running our plays and running against our defense and offense, but we’re also preparing (this next week) for St. James. It just helps with the Sunday (weekly in-season) meetings once you get there. It breaks up the monotony in (summer) practice,