The Morgan Academy Senators football team put special emphasis on one phase of the game during Thursday practices.

The Senators began implementing special teams during practice on Thursday, as they worked on punt, punt return, kickoff and kickoff return among others.

Bob Taylor, head football coach of Morgan Academy, said he likes to get to work on special teams early, so that his team won’t have to stress to implement them later.

“You try to go ahead and get it in, that way you’re not rushed to get it in later,” Taylor said. “You generally like to do one a day, but I’m one of those ‘let’s jump in, just take one practice and put it all in and get it all done.’ Then we’ll come work on our finite stuff for our offense and defense, and it works out well. I think they kind of responded well to what we’re trying to do.”

The Senators had focused squarely on offense and defense leading up to Thursday, but Taylor said it was time to work on special teams in order to make it a part of the team’s daily routine and so that they could be ready once games started being played.

“The main thing we’ve worked on up until today [Thursday] was all about offense and defense,” Taylor said. “All of our base stuff is in, so now it’s just a matter of fine tuning it. Special teams were a big part of today and we went ahead and put everything in. Now we’ll start planning that into our practices and then gear it up to get ready to start playing some games.”

Thursday also marked the fourth day that Morgan practiced in full equipment in this its second week of practices.

Taylor said the first day in equipment got off to a shaky start, but the players improved as the day went on.

“The first practice we put them on, it was a little rusty,” Taylor said. “You jump in, you try to get a little contact and get it geared up a little bit. As practice went on, it got better and then the next practice it was really good, we had a good day and they focused well. Our fitness level is getting higher and that’s helped allow us to be able to do what we do in full pads.”

The Senators will also host a jamboree game on Aug. 17 to help prepare them for their first game of the regular season on Aug. 24, as Wilcox Academy, Macon-East Montgomery Academy and Southern Academy are set to participate.