Junction City’s Dancy makes return to gridiron

RUSTON, La. – Louisiana Tech football practiced for two hours on Monday under sunny skies in what was the ninth of 15 total sessions of the spring for the Bulldogs, who are prepping for the 2017 spring game on April 8.

Now past the midway point of spring practices, LA Tech received a lift on Friday when Jaqwis Dancy officially made his return to the field after it was announced in February he was cancer-free following a diagnosis of Hodgkin lymphoma in October.

“I think to get Jaqwis out here with everything he has been through was definitely an uplifting experience for our team to have him back out here,” Louisiana Tech coach Skip Holtz said of the running back’s return to the gridiron.

“This is his second day in practice and you have to do the first two days in shorts, so he has not been able to partake in any of the team things yet.

“We just have to be really careful with what we are doing with him at this point and how much work we give him early. He needs to come out here and be able to see it full speed, but at the same time, we have to get some weight back on him and get his feet completely underneath him before we really throw him into it full swing.”

The Bulldogs are coming off the team’s first scrimmage of spring ball last Friday, which featured several fresh faces on both sides of the ball.

LA Tech has five more practices remaining this spring before wrapping up workouts in less than two weeks at the spring game at Joe Aillet Stadium.

“We had a scrimmage on Friday and thought it was really spirited,” Holtz said.

“A lot of young guys got a lot of quality reps. We went about 75 plays on Friday and then came out here and I thought we had a really spirited period today. We keep talking about the process of what it takes to get better and what it takes to be a good football team.

“We are a long way from there right now and we have a lot of moving parts that need to be answered before we get there, but I really like the work ethic, the attitude and the way things are starting to formulate out there.

“We still have a lot of the depth chart that needs to be resolved here over the next two weeks, which will include two scrimmages that are going to be huge for developing that depth chart. We had some quality work, some quality reps, and hopefully we can continue improving.”

One area of focus for the Bulldogs this spring has been filling in holes on the defensive side of the ball as Louisiana Tech will have to replace five starters loss in 2017.

“(The defense) is doing some better things fundamentally,” Holtz said.

“I think we are getting better in some areas. We are putting a huge emphasis on just being able to play fundamental football. We have to get to the point where we can play base football and we are getting better at that.”

Louisiana Tech will return to the practice fields Wednesday afternoon before closing out the week with sessions scheduled for Friday and Saturday.