SACCO: Finally, it’s football

By Jim Sacco

Published: July 28, 2008

Senior Steven Brown saw something he didn’t like — one of the players running the “box drill” was standing too tall.
“Stay down,” Brown said as another Little Giant scurried through the pylons and crisscrossed his way back to the starting point in line.

Assistant coach Alec Gunn was quick to reiterate Brown’s sentiments.
“You’re standing too tall,” Gunn said. “Keep you butts down. Keep your butts down.”
The rest of the Waynesboro football players joined in the encouragement.
Two more Little Giants zipped through the drill, the sweat on their faces clearly visible through the face masks. This time it was picture perfect. They turned the corners on a dime, moved quickly and, more importantly, stayed low.

“Make it right,” Brown said, clapping his hands together.
The movement, the voices and the heat.
The whistles — blown by assistant coach Shawn Moran as he worked with the receivers — sounding every two seconds or so, signaling the next group of players to skip their way through the middle of the field. (“Pop up on each step,” Gunn yelled. “Up, up, up. Come on,” Moran joined in.) And Waynesboro head coach Steve Isaacs doing it all over again for the 25th time.

Monday was the first day of football practice at Waynesboro High School, a sure-fire signal that school starts soon and, with it, Friday night lights.

Before the day started, the second-year Waynesboro coach didn’t look ready as he fumbled around his cracker-box small office looking for a schedule and letting out a sigh when a player interrupted him with a question. Then came 5 p.m. and the players were on the Jackson-Wilson field behind the school doing their drills and Isaacs was nowhere to be found.

The team worked away. The linemen were inside the school, the skill players on the field. The coaches, whistles slung around their necks, hollering out directions and setting the tone for the day.

“Everything is a sprint,” Moran told the huddled mass of purple and hard plastic. “You don’t walk anywhere. Everything is full.”

Full speed.
Full attention.
Give it your all on every play.
They continued the sweaty dance through the evening, never stopping for official water breaks, opting instead for a drink-on-your-own approach.

“Nobody is going to tell you to get water,” Gunn said. “If you need some, go get some.”
A few players stopped and pumped in as much water as their mouths could hold from the bottles that were scattered across the field, adding a touch of faded green to an already established kaleidoscope of orange pylons, neon cones, purple helmets and white lines.

Nobody stopped to watch as Isaacs made the slow walk from the high school to the practice field.
Without batting an eye, he weaved his way through the drills that crowded the field. The players never broke stride.
“When you’re winning and you got a good group of kids, that makes it fun,” Isaacs said.
After a 1-9 2007, you have to wonder if it’s still fun for Isaacs.
“I got a good group of kids,” he said with a smile. Arms folded across his chest and never taking his eyes off the field. “Man, we got some talented skill players.”

Eternal optimism.
Ah, must be football season.
Finally.