OPENING DAY: Once Warriors wake up, practice runs smooth

By Justin Hayes
Published in Sports on August 2, 2016 1:48 PM

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jhayes@newsargus.com

At the door of the school's south-side gymnasium, the Eastern Wayne varsity football staff kept hawkish study over the arrival of its players on Monday morning.

Their pace, however, was uninspired.

"It's 6:59 a.m.," exclaimed assistant Mike Davis. "And y'all are walking around like you have all day."

They certainly did not.

Roughly 10 minutes later, after the last of the team's eligibility paperwork had been finalized, the blue-and-gold hit the ground and sprinted for official-capacity, opening-day practice.

From there, pace was not an issue.

Broken into three offensive ensembles, the Warriors flashed speed to any and all parts of the practice field during their two-hour assembly.

Quarterbacks and wideouts worked under the tutelage of first-year head coach Leander Oates, focusing primarily on elements of the Warrior route tree. Lineman on both sides of the ball got a sampling of gap assignments, form technique and blocking schedules under Davis, whose message was clear -- do your job.

"We have to get to the second level," Oates said. "I should just start yelling, clean up on aisle four."

And if numbers matter, there should be plenty of help available to assist the tidyness.

The Warriors' first-day turnout -- 74 prospects strong -- was the polar opposite of 2015 when the team struggled to piece together an active roster of 45 players.

Call it a culture reformation.

"We were averaging around 60 (players per summer workout)," Oates said, "and that's a good start, getting them used to the future of our school. It was a pretty awesome start."

Indeed.

The remainder of this week's work will be salted away in patterns of scripted offensive and defensive drills, and perhaps game-planning for next week's scrimmage versus Fayetteville Pine Forest.

"Right now, I pretty much I have an idea of where kids will be playing," Oates said. "But hopefully more will be coming out."

The more the merrier, it seems, at New Hope.