Hounds picking back up

PORTALES — What happens in August doesn’t necessarily stay in August. At least not as far as preseason football practices go.

What happens in August can actually have a long-lasting effect on football teams. What goes right, how fast the players catch on, usually goes a long way toward a successful season, sometimes right on through to late autumn.

If things don’t work, if the players don’t absorb what the coaches are trying to teach them, problems can arise as early as the season opener.

So, what happens for Eastern New Mexico’s football team in these sweltering August days is almost as important as what will happen Sept. 7 after the mascot greyhound races from one end of Al Whitehead Field to the other, and the 2019 season gets underway.

When players reported last Thursday and practices officially began on Saturday, the countdown was on toward the season, and the crucial days of preparation had begun. The players and coaches are now almost a week in, showing up on the practice field about 8:30 a.m., getting started about 9 a.m., and practicing for a little over two hours.

As of Tuesday, third-year head coach Kelley Lee was in so-far-so-good mode.

“Really pleased with the effort,” he said. “Lot of new faces, but I think everyone’s coming together as a team. Real pleased with our progress so far.”

The Greyhounds are early in the progression of practice, early in the routine. Early in the post-two-a-day era.

“A lot of individual technique work and a lot of just learning,” Lee said. “It’s as much mental as it is physical with the NCAA model — we only practice once a day. We walk through, and have a lot of classroom meeting time. It’s almost like going to school; Football 101, so to speak.”

With the two-a-day world come and gone, coaches are adjusting to that extra classroom and less field time. Lee says he and his coaching staff are getting along just fine.

“Having done both now I don’t think it makes a huge difference in your preparation,” Lee said, “as long as you’re able to keep your kids locked in during that meeting time. You have to find ways to challenge them as a teacher in the classroom. If you have a great teacher, students learn a lot more. So right now coaches try to be great teachers.”

When they’re out on the field, the Greyhounds are working on practice fundamentals, the basics of schemes.

“Right now it’s all about getting lined up and your assignments, communicating with one another,” Lee said. “When you start getting that locked in, you’re able to really hone your specifics and your scheme. Other than that, it’s just coming together as a team.”

Leadership, as is the case during the season, always helps during these early preparatory days. Players like redshirt senior quarterback Wyatt Strand and the other veterans can be like unofficial assistant coaches, helping show newcomers the way.

“Yeah, absolutely. You look for them to,” Lee said. “Sometimes they do and sometimes they don’t. But this group is taking that on their shoulders. There’s a lot of buy-in at this point, which is something we really like to see.”