Combining working for Trojans

The first week of practice has brought something of a new wrinkle for Parkers Chapel’s workouts.

With 30 players on the junior high squad, coach Elliot Jacobs has had them working together with the senior high players.

“We’ve kind of done it in the past, but the last few years, our senior high numbers have been good, so we would do it for a couple of days and then split them up,” Jacobs said. “Now we’re going to do it until school starts just to help out our senior high numbers.”

So far, everything has gone according to plan.

“It’s been going good. Our kids are working hard,” Jacobs said.

“We’ve got about 50 kids out there. It really helps our junior high kids going against the senior high, seeing what that kind of style of football is like.

“We’re kind of low on senior high numbers, so it helps those kids in individual drills not have to get as many reps in that five-minute period as they normally would, so we can give them a little bit of rest there. We like what we’re doing right now.”

By having the two groups work together, Jacobs said the quality of reps his players get are much better.

“Definitely,” Jacobs said. “In one of our groups, we might only have two senior high kids, but we might have an extra eight in junior high, so that’s 10 kids in a group and we’re able to get better quality reps just because those senior high kids can get a little bit of a break.

“When it’s their turn to go, they’re a little bit fresher. That really helps. The junior high kids seeing the senior high kids showing them how it’s supposed to look is really going to be beneficial for us.”

Jacobs wasn’t sure if the junior high numbers were the most he has had, but he added that those groups have a chance to make a major impact in the future.

“We’re usually around 30 to mid-30s, so it might be the most, I’m not sure, but there’s a lot of eighth-graders and a lot of ninth-graders. There’s a lot of good football players in those groups,” Jacobs said.

The Trojans played in only 7-on-7 over the summer, but Jacobs said his team got plenty out of it.

“We ended up doing one 7-on-7,” Jacobs said. “We went down to Haynesville (La.) and competed against Haynesville and

Jonesboro-Hodge (La.). It went good. We didn’t have success, but those are two well-established programs, and our kids competed.

“It was good for our quarterbacks to see a different jersey going against them, getting some of their reads. Anytime you can compete, it’s good if you can get something out of it, and we did.”

Jacobs said the Trojans did plenty of installation in their practice on Thursday, and he was eager to see how his team could build off of that for Friday’s workout.

“It was a heavy install day,” Jacobs said. “We installed a lot offensively, so it was more of a mental practice. On defense, we worked on a few tackling mistakes that we’ve been making. We’ll see if we can incorporate what we learned.”

If there is one area Jacobs has been pleased with, it has been the leadership the upperclassmen have showed.

“All of our kids are competing,” Jacobs said. “They understand the challenges that face them. We’re getting good leadership from our seniors, good leadership from some of our juniors. As coaches, we like that. We like this group a lot. It doesn’t mean we’re going to be successful, but we enjoy being around them.”