Pioneers making progress preparing for season

By ROB NUNLEY / Sports Editor for the Southern Standard

Coaches John Dryden, left, and Gerald Tidwell watch their players go through agility drills earlier this week. (Rob Nunley photo)

Through their first week of fall camp, the Pioneer football team made steady improvement, according to head coach Gerald Tidwell.

When asked Friday for a progress report from the team’s first five days of practice, Tidwell used the improvement in the Pioneers’ receiver corps as an example.

“Monday, our receivers couldn’t catch anything,” he noted. “They were just knocking balls down, and it was the same way back in spring practice.

“But coach (Chris) Madewell has been working with them, and they’re catching a lot of passes now. That’s going to allow us to have a running game and a passing game, which is what you need to have a successful offense.”

While the offense is progressing according to plan, Tidwell said the defensive unit has been taking a more methodical approach through the first week of camp, with coaches opting to firmly establish the basics before moving on to more complicated aspects of the defensive gameplan.

“I don’t want to say the defense is behind, but we’re very elementary right now,” Tidwell said. “The offense is going faster than the defense. That’s going slowly, because we want to make sure they pick up the base stuff we’re teaching.

“They’re going to be using it now, and they’ll be using it in the playoffs. So it’s important they get that part, and then we’ll start putting in stunts and getting more complicated with it down the road.”

Because they are still doing a great deal of on-field teaching, and as a precaution against any unnecessary early injuries, Tidwell elected to keep the Pioneers in just helmets and shoulder pads through last week’s drills, rather than going to full gear on Thursday as he’d originally intended.

“The kids are out for football, so we’re not going to doubt their courage and their desire to hit,” he explained. “And with just 45 kids, I want them playing on Friday nights — not making great plays and winding up hurt in practice.

“We’re going to teach them how to play in practice, and we’re going to be aggressive and physical in some drills, but we don’t want them beating on each other and winding up hurt on the practice field.”

The Pioneers will leave today for Camp Tanisi in Westmoreland, where they’ll spend the second week of fall drills. They are scheduled for a scrimmage at Lebanon Wednesday.