We were able to avoid enough nasty weather on Monday to get in a solid hour of tackling. Just before we went out of the field is when the rain began. It wasn’t coming down too hard, though. So, we were able to get something done and will hope for better weather for our last couple days of practice.

Monday was a competition tackling day. We did three different types of competitions.

Open Field Tackling

First, we had an open-field tackling competition for the skilled players and then one for the linemen. This was a one-on-one competition where each player would get to tackle their opponent three times and run the ball three times. Each player received one point for a score with the winner moving on to the next round. The competition was set up like a single elimination tournament. In the skill players division Tyler Ray defeated Jansen Penman to win. In the linemen division Chris Hendrix defeated Brandon Smith to win.

Escape from Saigon

Next, we held an Escape from Saigon competition. We were able to split the players up into teams of five to compete against another team of 5. Some coaches call this drill “gauntlet” as one runner will run against 5 defenders. However, the defenders are spaced five yards apart, vertically, and the runner must defeat the first tackler to move on to defeat the 2nd tackler and so on. It is not a gang tackling type of drill. Once a defender missed a tackle then he was removed from the drill.

The team of ball carriers had to try to defeat all of the defenders using 5 different ball carriers. This only happened once yesterday so hopefully this means we are getting better with tackling and it doesn’t mean that we just don’t have anyone that can run the ball. Newcomer Parker Anderson stood out in this drill as he made tackles on all 5 ball carriers on one team and the rest of his defensive teammates behind him didn’t even get the opportunity to make a tackle.

Goalline Tackling

Finally, we held a goalline tackling tournament. We divided the players up into 4 different groups and the winner of each group came together for the goalline tackling “Final-4.” The Final-4 consisted of Josh Gibson, Tyler Perkins, Jansen Penman, and Chris Hendrix. Hendrix defeated Gibson and Perkins defeated Penman to reach the final. Chris Hendrix then defeated Tyler Perkins to win the title of goalline tackling champion for the spring of 2007. I told you that this was March Madness-KY HS Football style.

No practice today

There will be no practice today as we will wait out the rain and hope for better weather on Wednesday and Thursday. I plan to make this a competitive week to see how kids react in certain competitive situations. It should also be a week where we have a whole lot of fun. Only two practice days left…