Pioneers head off to camp
With three weeks remaining before their regular-season opener, the Pioneer football team hit the road Thursday what could prove to be an intense five days of training.
Coach Gerald Tidwell, his staff and a group of around 50 players headed to La Vergne, where they’ll spend five days working as a team — and with other midstate squads — to prepare for the upcoming season.
“It takes a lot of courage for players to suit up, and go away from their home, school and community for four or five days,” Tidwell said after Thursday morning’s practice session, which preceded the team’s trip to La Vergne, “and especially to practice the way we’re going to practice versus good people like Goodpasture that we’re going to go against.
“We’ve talked about it, and I think our kids’ mindset is right, and we’re going to be able to get a lot of stuff done.”
And to get things done, the Pioneers will be starting bright and early — and finishing late.
Players will hit the ground running, literally, at 6 a.m., embarking on a one-mile run before breakfast. A morning practice and scrimmage will be held before lunch, after which the team will spend an hour and a half on its kicking game.
After dinner each evening, players will return to the field for defensive practice, as well as make-up running sessions for those few players who failed to attend 20 of the team’s 24 summer workouts.
“We’re going to stay busy,” Tidwell said. “They’ll have some time for the pool, and the other facilities they have at the camp. But we’re hoping they’re so tired, they’ll spend a lot of times in their cabins resting up from a hard day’s work.”
After an 0-10 season last year, the Pioneers will get a look at what it takes to have a successful program, as they’ll spend much of the next five days practicing with and scrimmaging against Goodpasture, the 2001 Class 2A state champions. Houston County, Page and Westmoreland will also be participating.
Tidwell said he expects his players to go into their camp experience with a goal of holding their own against championship-level competition.
“We can’t go up there against a state champion like Goodpasture, and get on the field and be content with doing OK, or not doing well,” he said. “We’ve got to expect to do well, and be upset if we don’t.
“We want to learn the competitor’s mentality, and change the way the program’s been doing the last couple of years by expecting good things to happen — then making them happen.”
The Pioneers are scheduled to return home Monday afternoon.