IT WASN’T quite NFL training camp, but it was a weekend devoted to team-building and football.
Jackson County spent the night Friday and Saturday evenings at the school and gathered for part of the day Sunday as preseason preparations continued for the Panthers
(click here for preseason football practice photos for local teams).
First year-coach Benji Harrison said the two-and-half day mini-camp was as much about team chemistry as it was about X’s and O’s.
“The no. 1 reason we did it was for our kids to stay together,” said Harrison, whose team opens the season Aug. 31 at home against Winder-Barrow. “To let our kids hang out, to get to know each other.”
The mini-camp included two practices Saturday, the second of which was scrimmage at Panther Stadium under the lights. Harrison was generally pleased with the scrimmage but said he certainly saw room for improvement.
“It definitely showed us that we’ve still got a long way to go,” Harrison said. “We’re not where we need to be yet.”
Overnight camps in the preseason have somewhat gone by the wayside in recent years with the new rules concerning two-a-days and school starting so much earlier. But Jackson County managed to work this mini-camp in on the final weekend of summer vacation and around picture day Saturday.
“I thought it was productive,” Harrison said. “I thought we got a lot accomplished. I thought we got a lot of reps. The key is that for two-and-a-half days or whatever it was, all they’re thinking is football.”
And it allowed the players to hangout and get to know each other better away from the practice field. Harrison said building camaraderie is as important as anything in the preseason.
“I always tell our kids, we’ve got to be tight,” Harrison said. “We talk about being a brotherhood. A lot of these kids don’t hang out all the time. It was just to get to know each other on that level.”
The mini-camp was part of what’s been a busy offseason and preseason for Jackson County, which will move up to Region 8-AAA this year.
The team held workouts three times a week in June and upped that to four times in July. The Panthers also participated in approximately 30 seven-on-seven scrimmages in the summer and even attended an offensive lineman camp.
Harrison said he and his staff asked a lot of the players in the summer. But that’s the only way to get better, he added.
“I joke all the time that you’ve got to put the sweat in the bucket,” he said.
