Smackover ready to get back to work today
For the first time since mid-March, Smackover football coach David Osborn will see his team in person.
With the Arkansas Activities Association ending the dead period that was put in place due to the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic, football programs across the state are beginning to resume their offseasons.
“We’re going to try and get started up on Wednesday,” Osborn said. “A lot of our personal protective equipment has come in. We’re giving the kids masks, and what we’ve done is set up in the indoor.
“We’re completely getting out of our regular set up in the fitness center. We’re going to be set up in the indoor with stations.
“We’ve got stations 30 yards apart with weightlifting racks 30 yards apart then in the middle of our indoor, we have some conditioning stations, so at all times, I think the closest section we’ll have is 12 yards. We’re going to be really spread apart. The other section is we’ll either work out on the track or on the field.”
Osborn said the team will work out in the morning, and there is plenty of space for the team to get their work done.
“What we’re going to try to do for this week is since this is the opening week, and it’s the one hour of kind of trying to get into the swing of things is we’re going to try and have it open from 9 to 10 and try to bring them all in, all the senior high kids in during that time,” Osborn said.
“The way it is set up in our indoor is we look like we can comfortably, with plenty of space, nobody close, we can run 30-plus kids in there. It won’t be a problem at all.
“But starting next week, we’re going to try and break it up into sections and have like a skill section and a line section at two different times.”
Osborn said the Bucks will work today and Thursday before extending to four days of workouts next week.
“The plan is for two days this week. We’ll take Friday off and kind of re-evaluate and look and see how we did the first two days,” Osborn said.
“Next week, we’re planning on full go Monday through Thursday, starting to put a little bit of stuff in and get going.”
The first-year coach added that this month will be strictly about conditioning and work on the offensive and defensive schemes will come later in the summer.
“Our plan right now for June is a lot of conditioning and lifting. We’ll shift more of the X’s and O’s in July,” Osborn said. “We haven’t seen the kids in so long, we want to get them back to where we need them to be.”
As he gets ready to see his team again, Osborn said the players are eager to get back to work.
“The whole time, the kids have been online with the digital communication with us. They’ve been shooting messages and asking, ‘When can we start, when can we start,’” Osborn said.
“I think everybody’s ready to try and get as close as we can back to normal, get a little football going, and kind of get back to normal life.”