Teams use summer workouts to build strength for fall

By TRAVIS DOWNEY

travisd@nwfdailynews.com

Before allowing himself to talk about just how Rocky Bayou Christian School would go about fielding their first-ever football team with school officials, John Reaves scoured the school's campus.

His search was not aimed solely at finding eager bodies to fit into helmets and shoulder pads, but also something far less obvious - a place to train.

In a pressure-filled profession often based on wins and losses, the summer months would seem to offer refuge for high school football coaches.

Instead, the days that fill June and July are largely spent on a sweltering field or in a cramped, stuffy weight room as teams throughout the area undergo perhaps the most vital stretch of their preparations for the coming season - summer workouts.

For the past two weeks, members of the Rocky Bayou football team have spent at least some portion of their morning sprinting up, down and back up a hill that Reaves found as part of the Knights' summer strength and conditioning program.

"We're trying to teach them the meaning of a 100-percent commitment," Reaves said while overseeing such sprints early Wednesday morning. "You can't do that without (summer workouts)."

At Choctawhatchee, Greg Thomas is directing his first summer program as the Indians' coach.

"I'm a firm believer that your season starts in the weight room," Thomas said. "How we work in there correlates to how you perform on the field."

In most cases, the two go hand-in-hand.

While it is spring that allows a coach to re-check his inventory, it is the months of June and July that are often the true proving ground.

 "It's a critical period for all of us," Baker coach Bob Kellogg said. "As long as I've been in this area, kids have just realized in Okaloosa County that (summer workouts) are something we've got to do if we want to be competitive."

It's never easy, and often it isn't much fun, but as coaches are quick to point out, it's part of the process.

 "Summer is the most crucial time," said South Walton coach David Barron, who likened the spring and summer to stages of a production line. "You're trying to get it put together so you can be ready to ship your product off in August.

"August is the icing on the cake. You take all the items off the production line and ship them out."

Making matters somewhat easier on players and coaches alike are recent changes to the school-year calendar.

With a later start date, schools gained a full four weeks of spring football, allowing a team to practice some 20 days rather than the 10 or 11 in years past.

Also, with preseason practices scheduled for Aug. 11 for most, two-a-days will allot added practice time before classes start, making it easier for coaches to allow for a well-deserved break.

"Summer needs to be summer," Fort Walton Beach coach Mike Owens said. "They still need to be able to go to church and go fishing."