Chargers adapt to new way of summer drills

As the clock ticked closer to 1 p.m. on Monday afternoon, the practice field at Choctaw County High School wasn’t quite as loaded with players as it would be on a normal summer day.

It was day one of summer workouts and second-year coach Jeff Roberts had three players going through light conditioning work on the field to close out their workout session. No, those weren’t the only players that were showing up for workouts. It’s just how spread out Roberts and his staff had made their workout sessions in order to keep players safe and healthy during the strange times that have come from the novel coronavirus (COVID-19).

That was the third session of the day for the Chargers, who had their biggest group at 8 a.m. It was day one of workouts across the state as schools have just opened back up the opportunity to get back to work after three months worth of a shutdown due to the coronavirus outbreak.

“It’s been a little different, obviously, but it’s good that we’re getting them back one way or another,” Roberts said. “I’m really proud of these sessions because it’s just about been perfect attendance so far. I think this is going to make us better players and better coaches because we’re learning to adapt to stuff. Sometimes in a lot of games you’re adapting to situations.”

Adapting has been the name of the game for everyone as it’s a situation that hasn’t been encountered before by any coaching staff. Roberts and his staff spraypainted off spots for each player to stand on the field 10 feet apart from the other.

There were weights outside though they’ve been instructed to have players do 50% of the most recent max lifting from back during the early part of the spring. The same goes for any running that was taken place as Roberts has the players working back slowly to get their bodies conditioned again after a long layoff.

“Some of them have been going home and cutting grass the entire time and that’s given them a little bit of an edge than the other ones,” Roberts said. “Some coaches send out workouts every day, but we’re in a limited situation as far as what they can do from home. I text them and told them to go get outside and stay in shape, but we wanted them to stay home and stay healthy. We all want to have a football season.”

Everyone is facing the same disadvantage of players working back into shape and also missing spring practices, but some coaches are more worried than others.

Roberts is one of those that isn’t as worried about missing those spring practices. It’s year two as the head coach and his players already know what to expect from him and from the system he has in place. He’s just excited to get back together with his team and get to work.

“I’m ok with it,” Roberts said. “I would have loved to have the spring because we graduated a good amount of players, especially on the offensive line. I’ve only been here for a year, but these kids know the fundamentals. We’re going to be young at a lot of spots, but I’m not as worried about it as I would have been last year in my first year.”

The Chargers will work every Monday, Tuesday and Thursday and they have five different sessions running all the way from 1-5 p.m. at an hour each. There are no more than 18 players at each session and two assistant coaches at each to limit the amount of people in one setting.