Tuesday

The arrival of Tuesday brings another early morning for the football team however athletes are not arriving early at school to lift weights. Tuesday mornings, as well as Wednesday and Thursday mornings, are reserved for reviewing practice film of the previous night. Football athletes, who are expected to be present for Monday’s practice film at 6:40 a.m., divide up by positional unit and relocate to different rooms to watch, analyze and dissect the previous day’s practice. Athletes are dismissed from film to attend classes at 7:20 a.m.

Depending on whether the school day is a blue or a silver day, football athletes will reconvene in the weight room at the start of first block on silver days for their in-school strength and conditioning weight class. According to Thomas and Applebee,  the extra 90 minutes allotted during the school day for strength training and supplemental workouts provides consistency for athletes in maintaining stamina during after school practice as well as on game day.

“In the weight room is where it all starts,” Applebee said. “We want to build the best athlete we can build whether that’s explosiveness, flexibility, core or playability, all of those things come into play when we take that extra time in the weight room. I’m grateful to the school and our administration for allowing our team have that time during school on silver days to better ourselves athletically.”

Following the end of the school day, film review switches back to opponent scouting in the afternoon starting at 3:05 p.m. By 4:00 p.m., athletes head out to the field for after school practice suited up in full pads at 4:00 p.m. With the addition of practicing in full pads on Tuesday, athletes are able to run plays and drills from the previous night at slightly faster speed.

Leading up to Friday’s game, practice pace speeds up each day in order to have the athletes capable of executing a full run through of offensive and defensive plays come Thursday night’s practice.

The duration of Tuesday practices, as well Wednesday practices, last upward of two hours, accommodating for an earlier start time since the first hour and 10 minutes of Monday’s after school practice time is dedicated toward opponent scouting. 

While athletes are dismissed to go home at 6:00 p.m., coaches stay back for another hour and a half to review film in the field house, going home around 7:30 p.m.

“The whole point of us coaches staying back to watch film together is make sure that we’re on the same page, both offensively and defensively,” Applebee said. “We make sure that we know of any corrections that need to be made so we can all be on the same page for the next day’s practice.”