CRESTVIEW — As summer workouts draw to an end in a little more than a week the Crestview football team is looking forward to fall practice that starts Aug. 5.
First-year Bulldog coach Tim Hatten is pleased with the team's progress.
"Things have been good," he said. "We are right on schedule. We've had good throwing sessions and good installation sessions.
"We are working three groups, the varsity group, the JV group and the ninth grade group. We have the run session the installation session and the lift session. It has worked exactly as I planned."
Hatten said any changes he makes in workouts between now and the start of fall practice will be minor. The Bulldogs will run a little more and throw a little more. Fans dropping by at the end of practice won't see a lot of extra running.
"If you are a football team — I don't care who you are — you don't run your way into shape," he said. "You play your way into shape." "I think you play your way into shape and figure out how you need to condition yourself as a player. When the season starts that's what generally happens."
No matter how much running a team does for conditioning players are going to cramp up during the first few weeks of the season as players get acclimated to the heat.
"It's still humid and it's still hot, but they have played their way into shape," he said. "Their bodies get accustomed to playing 12 minute quarters (three or four weeks into the season). You are out there all time and resting some for 30 seconds (between plays) and their bodies become acclimated to that."
By the same token, once practice starts, the Bulldogs probably won't be doing two-a-days.
"I'd rather beat my hand with a hammer than I would go through two-a-days," Hatten said. "Would you prefer eight weeks to work in the summer or six days of two-a-days? You're trying to accomplish the same goal (during summer workouts as in two-a-days).
"We've had all summer to work with them. I don't think busting them four days with two-a-days is going to be the answer to the question."
Two-a-days used to be the time for installing schemes and player conditioning — the things the Bulldogs have been working on throughout the summer.
"In the old days you left school at the end of May and you came back in August and nobody saw you in June or July," Hatten said. There were no team workouts, no conditioning, no seven-on-seven. Now you've got basically eight weeks to work kids and do the same thing you did during the two-a-days."
The first week the Bulldogs will practice in the morning and then they'll move to afternoon practices when teacher work days start Aug. 12.
His biggest concern heading into the season is minimizing the turnovers.
"It's just one of those things where you throw it up and go and hope you don't make mistakes and hope (quarterback) Khalil (Foster) has learned a lot," he said. "Corey (Armstrong) has looked good in the summer, sometimes. Sometimes he hasn't (looked good)…
"If you control turnovers and don't any problems in the kicking game and the rest of it will take care of itself."
Randy Dickson is the Crestview News Bulletin’s sports editor. Email him at randyd@crestviewbulletin.com, tweet him @BigRandle, or call 682-6524.
This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Summer winding down for Bulldogs