Today is Saturday, and we had a normal practice this morning. I got there a little early so I could finish the repair on Hillary's (our trainer) air mister. This machine is pretty cool, but it is heavy and cumbersome to move around. Basically, it is a large fan with a water pump pushing water mist in front of the wind stream. The water feels good as it evaporates on your skin on a hot day....like today! Hillary usually wants to bring it out for early practices and on game days. I repaired the wheels and asked one of my water guys to wheel it out to the sidelines. We plugged it up, and it ran just fine. We scrimmaged for about an hour this morning. We were missing a few players (on offense) this morning, so we used some younger kids during the scrimmage. The defense was flying around pretty good; however, we saw some good stuff on both sides of the ball. There was the usual "jaw jacking" between the offensive coaches and the defensive coaches, and the scrimmage was spirited. Truthfully, I usually throw the first verbal assault toward the defense, and Coach Miller usually answers back. Then, the kids get into it. I like when that happens! We have a young rising junior player who is going to be fun to watch. He starts on defense and he is a backup QB as well. This kid is going to be one of the best athletes to ever come out of this county. I love working with this young man. So talented!
Speaking of Hillary. She is the full time trainer for the school. She probably has more power than any head coach, because if Hillary says a football player can't play, guess what? He can't play. The safety of the player will always come first. In an earlier posting, I talked about dehydration and how the old-school coaches used to deal with it (Salt Tablets) Hillary posted these damn "piss signs" in front of every urinal and toilet in the locker rooms. As you are standing there urinating, you are supposed to notice the color of your urine. Dark is bad, it means your body is dehydrated. Light or clear is good, it means your body is hydrated. You are supposed to compare the color of your urine with the signs posted at the urinal. Truthfully, the signs do work. I was more than a little worried about Hillary yesterday. We were running a fierce blocking and tackling drill during practice, and she got a little close to the action. We had a breakout ball carrier, and the defense was chasing....right into Hillary. I saw the boys roll her legs up like a newspaper. It looked nasty, but she got right up. Randy and I ran over to her, but she said it was OK. I could tell in her eyes that it did hurt her, but she never let on.. Came into work this morning limping a little bit. Must be an ELON thing!
Hillary has this medical golf cart she drives to the practice field. It has a small flat bed (like a pickup truck) mounted on the back. I call her vehicle the "Death Cart" You never want to see a player hanging around Hillary's cart, for it usually means he will come out of there with a bag of ice strapped somewhere on his body. Is the player HURT or is he INJURED? Fact is that every player probably hurts somewhere on his body during the season. Playing hurt is supposed to be part of the game. Being hurt means you can still play. Examples of being hurt would be a bruise, or maybe a blister on your foot. Being INJURED is different. Examples of an injury would be a broken bone or a torn ACL. Usually, an injury will mean missed practice time or perhaps a missed game or two. Maybe worse. I usually tell the kids to stay away from the cart unless they ABSOLUTELY cannot practice further. In all fairness to Hillary, she cannot make a quick judgement of the severity of a problem without testing, so she usually errs on the side of caution. She will not let the player practice further until she evaluates the problem. Sometimes the sideline will look like a hospital waiting room.
More tomorrow.
GZ
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