GREENVILLE – The Greenville High School football team took advantage of the first day of full pads and hitting with two practice sessions.
“Today is the first day full-go for all of our players that played the acclimation period,” said Greenville head football coach Bart Schmitz. “It was pretty exciting this first practice with the amount of contact. Usually that first day of hitting, sometimes your technique and you make a lot of mistakes. Mentally we were still sharp and that is an extreme positive for us right now.”
Coach Schmitz is pleased with the attitude and progress of the players on the new season.
“Our kids are excited,” Schmitz said. “They have bought in to what we are trying to do here. It’s a family atmosphere, accountability and working hard for your teammates – and they have bought in.”
“This has been a hard working group of kids that have handled everything that we’ve thrown at them with great pride,” continued Schmitz. “They have just taken pride in what they do right now.”
With the first day of contact on the new season, energy was noticeably high in the spirited practices while giving the coaching staff added means to evaluate the team and players.
“It allows you to fine tune your tackling, it allows to fine tune your blocking and you have to find out who likes contact,” noted Coach Schmitz.
“This upcoming Tuesday we have Celina at home,” said Schmitz, “and Friday Coldwater comes to town.”
Greenville has a Tuesday, August 13 home scrimmage scheduled with Celina at Harmon Field with a 10 a.m. start time and a Friday, August 16 scrimmage vs Coldwater at Greenville starting at 10 a.m.
The final tune-up for both Greenville and the Versailles Tigers takes place Friday, August 19 at Versailles when the team’s play at the annual Jamboree.
