TOKAY FOOTBALL FEELING THE GROOVE
One of the most important pieces of equipment for the Tokay High football team sat at the south end of Hubbard Field during Thursday’s practice.
A boom box that played a mixture of old school rhythm and blues to today’s top 40 music.
“It’s something the kids wanted to do,” explained Tokay coach Michael Holst. “We’ve had it out before. It keeps the energy up at practice.”
The Tiger players and coaches equally decide what songs and artists are played at the practices.
“There’s a mix of stuff on there,” Holst said. “You’re kind of getting old when you start asking for songs that you don’t know what the heck they are talking about. We’ll keep extending the selection a little bit. We try to run it every day ... keeping the energy up, especially on hot days.”
The energy was certainly high during Thursday’s practice to the point that Tiger players and coaches could’ve busted out dance moves and grooves. Working on defensive drills for most of the last half of practice, the bulk of the Tigers’ linemen, linebackers, defensive backs and safeties displayed plenty of energy on each set.
“We installed some new stuff, we got all of our special teams in,” Holst said. “We looked good on our punt block session as far as being at the right spot, understanding where to go. I felt we took a step in the right direction.”
Tokay, according to Holst, is not dependent on music to get fired up for practices and/or games.
“We’re trying to get them to perform as best as they can,” said Holst, a resource teacher at Tokay
who is also the school’s athletic director.
Temperatures were just under 100 degrees during Thursday’s practice, but with a light southwest wind blowing. Earlier in the week, temperatures were over 105 degrees. Tiger players were given water breaks every 20 minutes during practice.
“The main thing we try to do is we’ve talked to them is about hydrating now for later,” Holst said. “That’s tough with any population, especially with teenage population. That’s the one thing they really control.”
There were new faces on the Tokay football team; players who had limited to almost no practice time with the squad during the summer workouts last month and June. Holst notes those players must pass a physical test, as do the other players who worked out with the team regularly before the start and end of the section’s dead toward the end of last month, to make the team.
“If they don’t pass the conditioning test, or do the conditioning test when we do it, then they have to x number days of conditioning,” explained Holst.
To end practice, assistant coach Zac Walcher, a teacher at Tokay who is also the school’s boys and girls track and field coach, conducted conditioning drills. Forming a circle near the end zone at the south end of Hubbard Field, the Tigers did a series of squat jumps, pushups and skip-steps.
On Monday, Tokay, which went 4-6 last season and 2-3 in the Tri-City Athletic League, and the rest of the high school football programs in the SacJoaquin Section started practices in preparing for the upcoming season. On the first day and Monday, blocking sled/dummies are allowed in practices for technique, agility and conditioning.
Then on Wednesday, which was the first day teams could wear helmets and shoulder pads for a maximum of four hours through Friday. Contact on blocking sleds and dummies are permissible. Starting next Monday, teams can spend more time in full-contact, not to exceed a combined 90 minutes each week during the season.
On Friday, Aug. 18, Tokay will take part in a round-robin scrimmage at Edison, facing the host Vikings, plus East Union of Manteca and Atwater. Then three weeks from today — Friday, Aug. 25 — Tokay opens the season with a nonleague game at Heritage of Brentwood.