Selma, others held first football practices of year Monday
Published 7:45 pm Monday, August 3, 2015
A Selma High School football player runs through an agility drill during Monday’s practice. Monday was the first day Alabama High School Athletic Association schools were allowed to practice this season. Selma’s first game will be Aug. 21 against Southside. –Justin Fedich
By Justin Fedich | The Selma Times-Journal
The weight room was full of anticipation, but it was silent. The Selma High School football team was ready to hit the field for the first time this year as defensive coordinator Robert Wilkerson raised his voice.
“It’s about to get real,” Wilkerson said.
Football is officially in the air in Dallas County. For the first time this year, high schools in the Selma area practiced Monday in preparation for another football season. Although the first real test is more than two weeks away, the days of practice leading up to the first game of the season present challenges of their own.
Due to new regulations adopted this year by the Alabama High School Athletic Association, the first two days of practice must be in shorts and helmets and must not exceed 90 minutes.
“We can only practice 90 minutes, so we’ve got to do a lot of teaching,” Selma head coach Leroy Miles said.
Schools practiced all throughout the day on Monday. Keith and Southside held practices at 6 p.m., after the weather had cooled down a bit.
Regardless of what time of day a team practices, it’s important for coaches to get a strong message across early. For Miles, it’s a message he’s already reiterated to his team multiple times.
“We want to be one big family and I feel like if we love each other, we’ll want to play hard for each other,” Miles said.
Playing hard will be the norm for the first couple of practices as coaches try to squeeze every second of the 90-minute window into teaching their players the fundamentals.
Miles knows the opponents on the Saints’ schedule, but he’s told his team there is only one opponent on the schedule right now.
“The only thing that can hurt us at this point is us hurting ourselves, and our thing is we just want to pull together and support each other and be one,” Miles said.
Miles is ready for the challenge his team faces.
Right before Selma took the field for its first practice of the season, Miles looked at his players with a pregame focus. With 18 days until the Saints’ first game against Southside, Miles was blunt with his players.
“We’ve got no time to waste,” Miles said.
