Perry, St. James working through 'different' summer drills
St. James coach Jimmy Perry talks with freshman Gates Garrett during Thursday’s workouts. (Tim Gayle)
By TIM GAYLE
Thursday was just another day for conditioning drills at St. James. Six feet apart, of course.
“When you’re on the field, it’s really hard to wear these masks,” St. James coach Jimmy Perry observed, “so you just keep six feet (apart). This is just conditioning. We don’t even have a ball out here. We’re really just doing weight training, conditioning, agility and evaluation. We aren’t putting in plays or anything for two weeks.”
There are approximately 50 Trojans out for drills, but “30 of the 50 haven’t been in a 10th-grade classroom yet,” which means the workouts are a bit more basic with many of the players getting their first taste of varsity practice.
“It’s different,” Perry admitted. “The experience is not there, so we have to teach that much more. We have to start with the little things.”
The group moves from one agility workout to another under the watchful eye of assistant coaches, who then rate the players to determine the groupings.
“We’re watching the footwork, asking, ‘Can this kid play this position?’” Perry said. “We have our meeting, our roster management stuff and I went in this morning and told the coaches I have a guy in my group that’s got to go in somebody else’s group because he can’t do what I’m asking.”
Practice wraps up with smaller groups working on more specific drills, but Alabama High School Athletic Association rules implemented as a result of COVID-19 prohibit players from swapping from group to group, so the smaller groups change on a daily basis, not from drill to drill.
Perry said the players will continue agility workouts for two weeks before transitioning to formations and plays beginning June 22.
“It’s a little different,” said center and defensive end Cole Bender. “We’re still together, doing pretty much the same thing, but we’re just trying to stay safe.”
The Trojans are expected to face a new set of challenges when plays and formations are introduced on June 22 to a group of newcomers at the varsity level.
“We’re probably going to have a freshman quarterback, so it’ll be different but I think we can manage,” Bender noted. “I think we’ll be all right. It’ll be different because last year we had a senior backfield but I think we’ll still be pretty good because these freshmen coming up are real good and have good size and good speed.”