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As first practices loom, prep football coaches say game is safer

By Jim Paulsen, Star Tribune, 08/14/16, 10:24PM CDT

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Changes to football have made it safer, coaches say.


“I do remember a time when people thought water made you soft,” recalled Minnetonka football coach Dave Nelson, a high school coach for more than 30 years whose father, Stan, was a Minnesota Football Coaches Association Hall of Fame coach at Anoka. “That’

The first day of practice. Coaches love it. Players? Not so much.

Monday is the first official day of practice allowed by the MSHSL for fall high school sports teams. Athletes in cross-country, football, soccer, girls’ tennis, girls’ swimming and volleyball will get together with their coaches and perspective teammates to prepare for their upcoming seasons, which in most cases begin in about two weeks.

“Call me weird, call me crazy,” Roseville football coach Chris Simdorn said. “I’m 48 years old, and I still toss and turn on Sunday night, looking at the clock.”

For many who played football and remember the torment of preseason practices, however, anticipating the first day of practice was akin to waiting in the principal’s office. Feelings of nervousness tinged with dread, thinking of all sorts of horrors — some real, others exaggerated — that lay ahead.

Conditioning meant endless sprints. Drills were often designed to see who was willing to hit and who might need a little encouragement.

And it usually took place twice a day.

Thing is, those days are largely just memories. Football has evolved in recent years due to better education about injuries, increased attention to teaching skills and fundamentals and a desire from coaches and players to hit the ground running. A team not prepared for preseason practices is already a team that’s fallen behind its competition.

“Thirty years ago, the whole concept was about getting kids ready for the season,” Simdorn said. “It’s different now. We’re allowed to practice quite a bit more in the summer, and kids are already in shape and more advanced mentally. They come in much more prepared.”

Even first-year coaches know more about their teams than they did in the past. New Osseo coach Ryan Stockhaus said he doesn’t look at the first day of practice any differently than other summer sessions with his team.

“I just look at it as an extension of what we’re been doing all summer,” Stockhaus said.

Better knowledge and awareness of health issues have changed practice routines drastically. Teams can no longer have two practices in one day on consecutive days. Water breaks, years ago considered signs of weakness, are freely encouraged.

“I do remember a time when people thought water made you soft,” recalled Minnetonka coach Dave Nelson, a high school coach for more than 30 years whose father, Stan, was a Minnesota Football Coaches Association Hall of Fame coach at Anoka. “That’s laughable now.”

Things that once were common, such as challenge drills pitting player against player, are rarely seen anymore. Hitting and contact are kept to a minimum and done with an eye to teaching proper technique. Many teams eschew full-scale tackling in practice altogether.

“I remember one drill we used to do called Bull-In-the Ring,” Nelson said. “There would be one guy with the ball in the middle of a circle of players. The coach would call out a player’s number and the guy with the ball would have to run at that guy and try to break through the circle. We don’t do that anymore. I mean, when does that ever happen in a game?”

Today, the game is much safer. Even methods of tackling have changed, with rugby-style tackling — grabbing and rolling a player to the ground — taught over the traditional wrap-and-drive style taught for many years. And woe be to any coach who encourages wanton aggression.

“One term I used to hear a lot when I was playing was ‘ear-holing’,” said Simdorn, who played at Minneapolis Roosevelt before he had an award-winning college career at North Dakota State. “Coaches wanted an aggressive mentality and for you to lay a stick on someone. You would never hear that today. And that’s good.”

And better, most coaches agree. Time previously spent on developing machismo is now devoted to teaching.

“We spend a lot more time teaching fundamentals, like how to block and how to tackle the right way,” Nelson said. “Overall, I think our game is safer and better now than it’s ever been.”

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