For Mark Fischer and the Louisa County football team, the fall just cannot arrive quickly enough. After missing the postseason in 2008 by a fraction of a point, the Lions kicked off the 2009 season at the stroke of midnight Monday with their first practice of the year.
The Louisa players took to the practice field at “Midnight Madness” in front of a healthy crowd and wasted little time getting into the details of the game, breaking into positional drills after warming up.
“We just want to get the fundamentals down,” Fisher said. “We’ve been conditioning hard all summer so that shouldn’t be an issue for us. It’s getting the x’s and o’s back in our heads and putting them in the right order.”
The Louisa coaches put in a full two hour session with the players, working primarily on the finer details of their offense and defense before bringing them all together to work on some passing drills.
“It’s a great feeling when you know you’ve got the fans behind you and a great coaching staff,” said senior quarterback Dylan Hollins of taking the field.
After citing size as last year’s biggest issue, Fischer said he was pleased with the way his team has worked on getting bigger and stronger this offseason.
“We’re averaging 60 in the weight room everyday and that’s not just people,” Fisher said. “That’s 60 kids that are seriously working. We had to split up into two sessions it was so overly crowded and that’s definitely a good problem to have. So the focus is there, the attitude is there, and it reminds us a lot of the measuring stick which is the ’06 team.”
A freshman on that 2006 Group AA Division 4 state runner-up team, Hollins wants this team to be at its very best, and for him that means leading by example.
“I’ve got to be a leader because I’m a captain and a senior,” Hollins said. “You want to be at the top so you’ve got to practice at the top, and hopefully everybody else will follow and practice like that too.”
The Lions have a little more than a month to prepare before their season kicks off September 4 on the road against Eastern View.
