Leopards wrap up summer camps, workouts healthy rolling into their fall campaign
Plumlee observes toughness from Leopards in final team camp at Robinson
LITTLE ROCK — The hometown Malvern Leopards brought intensity to the gridiron for their final summer workout session Tuesday in the Rock for team camp football competition hosted at Joe T. Robinson in Little Rock.
Malvern football head coach J.D. Plumlee is pleased by how the work ethic of the Leopards’ production in summer activities of team camps, 7-on-7 competitions and daily workouts have been.
Plumlee mentioned during team camp at Robinson, they were able to mix up a variety of starters— backups with others to observe how the chemistry would turn out.
One of the positive aspects this summer was that no injuries occurred. Plumlee has been very grateful for that accolade—which is always an “achilles heel” situation that haunts any team’s sports season. Overall, Plumlee is excited about how dedicated his talented young men of the gridiron has been during the summer. He knows this will be a worthy asset to the upcoming season and it shows a lot of pride to represent the community wearing a Leopard uniform.
“We got a lot of reps and mix and match guys to see how well certain groups did,” Plumlee said. “This summer we wanted to focus on toughness.” Plumlee emphasized that football is hard and it is not always fun.
“The message to our guys is that in life it is hard, but you can get through the hard times,” he noted. Plumlee was thrilled about how the Leopards responded to everything productively and they kept working hard each and every day. “The guys have really responded well and during the summer we wanted to see efficiency.”
The Leopards went through a very busy summer workout schedule, but despite being challenged, they stepped up as a productive unit and maintained dedication to improve from all phases of the game. “We had zero injuries during the summer and that is a testimony,” Plumlee said. “I give a lot of credit to the other coaches and their teams we have faced and competed against this summer.” Plumlee knew that is always something important during these summer workouts and he realized other coaches know that principle as well. “We’ve been fortunate to not have any injuries— which has been the number one thing,” Plumlee stated about this summer’s workout session for the Leopards. Now, with the summer activities behind them, the Leopards are focused on going into fall camp and preparing for a successful run to achieve team goals and hopefully extending a season through December. The COVID-19 Pandemic has been a major factor in sports since last year. Plumlee knows it could become something major this upcoming season, but in all, you still have to play ball with who you have available.
This was one of the advantages Plumlee wanted to observe during the summer to see how other players on the team could perform if injuries occurred—but find a way to still be effective.
After the Leopards’ fall campaign in August gets underway, plans are being made for an orange and black scrimmage, Plumlee mentioned following the 2021 James King 7-on-7 event held July 14.
Then, the showdown scrimmage will take place Aug. 19, with Malvern hosting Sheridan at Claude Mann Stadium on David Alpe Field. The Leopards will open the 2021 football season hosting their longtime and arch rival Glen Rose, scheduled September 3 in Leopard Mania— Malvern.