Colts cutting back on football injuries with new equipment
The McCoy Colts are on the cutting edge of the gridiron.
The varsity football team returned to the field at McCoy for spring camp this week and were greeted with a new set of training equipment geared toward instilling proper fundamentals while cutting down on the potential for injury.
“It’s a mobile tackling system so we can use it for blocking drills, tackling drills, without having to have manon-man contact. Then we can teach the proper technique every day of the week but we’re not beating the guys up,” Colts head coach Adrian Szola said of the Shadowman Sports tackling equipment. “They like that they can still hit things without hurting their own team or hurting themselves too. It’s also good because they can keep that intensity bundled up for game day instead of wasting it all on their players.”
Colts running back Chayce Davies — who will enter his Grade 12 season in the fall — says the hitting dummies have given McCoy an edge in the training department while helping keep their bodies in shape for kickoff.
“It’s really nice, especially for the linebackers. They can learn to pursue the ball when the quarterback is in the pocket because we can strap the ball to the arm. And I also think with the numbers on the side it helps us learn to get low more and make better tackles,” said Davies, adding he is optimistic about the upcoming season. “I think we had a pretty bad year this year, but we’ve got the same head coach and a few new coaches. I think the progress is getting a lot better, we’re in a different place than we were last year as far as development goes.”
While the Colts are coming off another fruitless season in the Rangeland Football Conference, Szola is confident the team is on the cusp of turning things around as well. Szola took over as head coach of the team this year and says he’s looking forward to entering a season with a core of players who already know his systems.
“I don’t have to re-teach it to everybody every year now, we can kind of grow off the system we have and make it better,” said Szola. “We’re pretty much rebuilding from the bottom up, so it was a huge learning curve last year but now I kind of have my feet back under me. The team is looking really good this year, we’ve got a lot of new coaches who are committed to the program, so we’ll be seeing less of a turnover with coaches. It’s going to be really good the next few years.”
Szola — who graduated from McCoy in 2012 after spending three years as a linebacker — says next year’s Colts squad is shaping up to be a fairly balanced bunch, and with plenty of returning seniors he’s hoping they’ll be able to compete with the best the Rangeland conference has to offer.
“We’ll have a pretty good veteran team this year. We’ve got about 12 seniors coming back so we have a good amount of experience on the team. We’ve got quite a few new players as well so we’ve got a good, balanced team,” said Szola, adding he wants to give his players the same positive football experience he received while at McCoy. “My life has changed because of football so I just want to repay that favour to everybody else and let other kids get the benefits of playing football.”