Football teams gear up for the start of the season

Press Sports Editor
sports@presspublications.com

Camps in July, 7-on-7s, lifting weights and two-a-days are at the heart of football’s offseason workout regimen.
Installing new plays, getting players in shape – or better shape – and allowing quarterbacks to develop and strengthen chemistry with their wide receivers and tight ends is what keeps football teams busy during the summer.
Lake coach Lane Bishop, now in his second season leading the Flyers, talked about his spread offense being a little easier for his players to grasp after employing it last season. The offense will employ the spread formation while mixing in some empty sets, three-wide, one-back sets, two-wide, two-back sets and an H-back.
“We don’t have a ton of install going in on offense,” said Bishop, one of the area’s youngest head coaches at 27. “Some of the wrinkles, we’re installing those, repping those and conditioning for the kids that don’t play sports year-round to get them in shape and lifting weights.
“Mentally, we’re much farther ahead than we were last year. Compared to where we were last year, it’s not even (close),” he said.
Bishop talked about the importance of 7-on-7s.
“It’s important for the quarterback to go through the progressions,” he said. “The biggest thing in 7-on-7 is to get our kids ready to compete and treat it like it’s a game.”
Two-a-days begin on Aug. 1, but Bishop and his staff are going to do things a little differently.
“We’ve kind of moved away from two-a-days, we’ve kind of shifted to a more new-age thinking — keep it brief, making sure our kids aren’t getting worn out and run down. We should be looking at perfecting those and cleaning up the small mistakes and miscues, so when it’s time for scrimmages, we’re 100% comfortable with what we’re doing,” he said. “I’m encouraged; we return a large part of our offensive production. We have a lot of the kids back on defense.”
Northwood coach Ken James, now in his 39th season leading the Rangers, said the team practices for four days each week.
“We’re normally on a four-day per week cycle. Wednesday is our day off,” said James. “We have workouts in the morning or evening, depending on the players’ work schedules.
“When I started here, players might be lifting weights, but you weren’t allowed to do any football (activities) until late July,” he said.
The Rangers will be attending a camp at Heidelberg University in Tiffin.
“It’s three days,” said James. “Just football, no distractions.”
James talked about how the game has evolved over the years.
“The game being safer is a good thing,” he said. “The rules have changed quite a bit, as far as the offseason time allowed, the structure and trying to take some of the violence out of the game (injuries).”
The game now has much more passing, and teams are scoring a lot more points.
“There are a lot more points scored, less shutouts. There are more 7-on-7s. Shotgun was very rare when I started – you didn’t see too many teams run the shotgun in the ‘80s or ‘90s,” said James, whose club likes to run the flex-bone offense. “The common offenses were Wing-T or I-formation; now there are more five-wide formations where a team hardly runs the ball.”
Northwood will be throwing the ball around more this season.
“We have a couple of young guys that can throw the ball,” said James. “We have 13 upperclassmen and 35 underclassmen; we’re going to play some freshmen and we have a bunch of sophomores.”
As far as coaching clinics are concerned, they’re usually held in the winter. James notes that he and his staff have attended clinics at Notre Dame, Ohio State and Georgia Tech.
Regarding why he enjoys coaching, James said, “Football is important in the overall structure of developing young men. For young people, people who are struggling with fitting in, being with the coaches and good coaching staffs who are good men, you can spend more time growing,” he said. “Just spending more time with guys that are good people –it’s a benefit to spend more time with the young men.”