Wildcats enjoy solid week in return to practice
El Dorado football emerged from the COVID-19 quarantine last week, working out with restrictions on Monday through Thursday. Coach Steven Jones said a total of 90 players showed up for varsity.
“We worked out every day this week. We gave them Friday off,” Jones said. “We had everybody come in. We got about an hour each day. How we formatted it, we kept them in their individual groups. So, they had their individual practice. But we were there as a team.”
Jones said the varsity had approximately 80 players show up per day. The ninth graders had 40 athletes with between 50 and 60 showing up for the seventh and eighth grade teams.
El Dorado's freshman and varsity worked out at the high school multi-purpose facility. The seventh and eighth graders practiced at the Barton dome.
“It was conditioning-type stuff, just to get our feet back underneath us. A lot of those guys, we haven't seen in a while. Before we jumped into too much, we wanted to make sure we got our feet underneath us, moved around a little bit,” said Jones.
“We're under a lot of restrictions. Our players have to wear masks. They can take those off if they're running a sprint or something that's kind of intense. We have to keep the guys six feet apart at all times and 12-feet apart when they're actually going through a rep. Coaches are having to wear masks at all times. We have to clean everything up before and after practice.”
It's different but after not being able to meet for several weeks, the Wildcats will take what they can get.
“It just looks different. It's kind of eerie to look out there and see guys in those face coverings and things like that. The cool thing about that was being back close to being normal, being able to meet up together,” said Jones. “There's a lot of optimism with our kids. It looks like we're starting to get back to normal. We're excited to see everybody back. It means a lot to have our guys together again.”
Jones said the freshmen and varsity will work out at the high school again this week in the mornings. The seventh and eighth graders will work out at Memorial Stadium but will be in separate groups this week. They will also practice in the morning.