Williams has mixed emotions about Warriors' first day

By Ryan Hanchett
Published in Sports on August 2, 2013 1:49 PM

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rhanchett@newsargus.com

At least it wasn't 100 degrees.

Heavy rains greeted the Eastern Wayne football team for its first practice on Thursday morning. The wet weather led to some sloppy moments, but the cloud cover kept the early-August temperatures far below normal.

"I would say overall for the first day I would give us a 'C'," Warriors head coach Bubba Williams said. "The weather didn't do us any favors, but at least it was cool so we didn't have to worry about overheating quite as much as we normally would."

The Warriors' varsity squad spent much of the morning working on conditioning in helmets, shorts and practice jerseys. A total of 33 players were dressed for the first day.

"We had 10 or so that didn't have their paperwork turned in so we sent them home," Williams said. "You have to have a physical before you can begin workouts, so hopefully those will get taken care of in the next day or two and we will get those guys in the mix."

Eastern Wayne will have seven practices before heading to Wilmington New Hanover for a scrimmage next week. The most glaring need for the Warriors is to find some depth along the offensive line before the team puts on full pads.

"I think we have the skill players to be competitive this season," Williams said. "Right now we are looking to see who is going to block for them. We need to build the line over the next two weeks."

Eastern Wayne advanced to the N.C. High School Athletic Association Class 3-A (small-school) playoffs and finished 4-7 overall a year ago.