Smackover coach pleased with first week of practice.

Smackover wrapped up its first week of practice under first-year coach Michael Baysinger with its second workout in shells on Friday.

“I thought the first two days of shells have been real good,” Baysinger said. “We seem to be in pretty good shape. It builds some excitement and development in a new environment for them. It’s going pretty good.”

Baysinger said the Bucks have worked on both sides of the ball in all of their practices this week, and for the most part, he was happy with what he saw in Friday’s workout.

“We did about an hour of offense and an hour of defense,” Baysinger said. “We were a little lethargic today just because it’s Friday, and we’ve gone pretty hard this week. For the most part, it was nothing that was unexpected out of our legs. I still thought it was a pretty good practice.”

So far, everything is proceeding well for the Bucks.

“The first week went pretty well,” Baysinger said. “It’s gone just as well as it has at any place I’ve been, especially with the amount that we’ve installed offensively and defensively with new lingo, new coaches and new kids. I’ve been pretty impressed.”

With Smackover scheduled to open their season on an earlier date (Tuesday, Aug. 27) due to playing Harmony Grove in the Arkansas Blue Cross and Blue

Shield Kickoff Classic, Baysinger said the Bucks have had to push their timetable up accordingly.

“Basically what it does for me personally is it kind of throws off that normal habit of how you structure your weeks,” Baysinger said. “Instead of your normal Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday schedule, it’s kind of turned into a scrimmage on Tuesday, then off on Wednesday, then Thursday becomes your Monday, Friday becomes your Tuesday, Saturday becomes your Wednesday, give them Sunday off and then Monday becomes that Thursday before game day. It just changes your weekly schedule.”

Monday marks the first day the Bucks will be in pads, and while Baysinger certainly wants to see intensity, he added that there will be plenty of teaching.

“You want to get after it, but at the same time, be smart about it and make sure we don’t get anybody hurt,” Baysinger said. “We’ll go through and teach proper tackling techniques. We’ll make sure we film that. That way everything structure-wise is taken care of. Then we’ll get after it. Right now, the main thing I want to preach big, big, big on is effort. I know we’re carrying a little bit more weight with the pads on the body, so I want to keep the effort up right now and be 100 percent effort in everything we do.”