Summer workouts for the football team start at 6:45 a.m. Monday-Thursday in the Marlboro County High School gym with warmups.
It was a defensive varsity practice for the Marlboro County High School football team on June 27.
The linebackers were doing bag drills at practice.
Defensive linemen practiced getting around barrels without touching them.
The defensive backs worked on high pointing the ball during practice.
Before the football season starts Aug. 26, the summer workouts lay down the foundation for the Marlboro County High School Bulldogs.
It starts at 6:45 a.m. Monday-Thursday in the gym with loud music blasting for warmups.
For roughly an hour, the team does stretching and agility exercises to prepare them for not only the outside practice but the future.
“It is preparing them for the season and getting acclimated to the weather, the culture change, the lifestyle and the way we’re gonna conduct things here,” said Head Football Coach/Athletic Director Quin McCollum.
During the month of June, student athletes showed up four days a week at 6:45 a.m.
Each athlete, especially the varsity players, were asked to make 20 workouts. “So far, we’ve had great participation,” McCollum said. “We’re averaging about 35 guys per day, which includes JV and varsity.”
This is the first part of practice, which is to get them limbered up.
“But it’s part of the preparation of getting ready to play, you want to make sure you’re in physical shape,” McCollum said. “You want to make sure you do things to prevent injuries.”
Athletes are given a break to eat breakfast. After this, it is out to the field, where they work on either an offensive or defensive emphasis day. For instance on June 27, there was a defensive varsity practice, which meant there was a JV opposite offensive practice. McCollum said they do some drills specific to their area and work on some techniques.
This pre-practice leads into individual, which is a set of drills specific to a position. For example, the defensive linemen practiced getting around barrels without touching them. Later they will be doing that same drill using their hands and focusing on hand placement.
The linebackers did bag drills, lateral movement, and ball drills.
McCollum said this would allow them to be able to concentrate on moving in a closed space, but also being able to concentrate on when the times that coaches throw the ball so they can either intercept or recover a fumble.
The defensive backs were getting ready to start high pointing the ball, which is catching the ball at the highest point. Or making sure that they’re able to guard a wide receiver while he was in transition.
Team philosophy
McCollum said it has been a culture change for the team. This includes his basic tenets of academics, being socially responsible, unselfishness and enthusiasm. His complete mission statement is victory loves preparation.
“We have to realize that we’re going through a culture change and you have to be the example of the culture change,” McCollum said. “And that’s what I’m preaching every day, being mentally and physically tough. Making sure we’re committed, not just dedicated, but being committed.”
He explained with an example. If you think of it in terms of breakfast, the chicken has committed to the process. She lays the egg and drops it off every day.
“But if you want the full-fledged breakfast meal, the pig is committed,” he said. “It’s all in and we want them to be all in.”
During practice, all team members are dressed in white t-shirts and black shorts.
This is to promote uniformity and brotherhood.
“We want to make sure they understand that there’s nobody bigger than the team,” McCollum said. “There’s no I in team and we want to make sure that everybody is on the same page doing the same thing.”
He felt it has been a good transition because the members of the team get it and understand it.
But for July, things will be a little different. The team will take the first week off, which is mandated by South Carolina High School League. They also take off the last week.
“Normally, we would have passing league but because of the helmet situation, and we’re still working on that. we can’t do it,” McCollum said. Right now, they are working on the fundamentals and getting the plays down. July 30 is the official practice start.
McCollum said they can put helmets on but with some stipulations. Two or three days in helmets, and then a couple of days in helmets and shoulder pads. Then players can be in full gear. Then a team can start scrimmaging.
The first scrimmage is against Richmond County in the Jamboree on August 12 at McAlpine Stadium. The first game is August 26 against Cheraw High School at home.
“This is one of the old rivalries that has been etched in stone since the beginning of the school,” McCollum said. “They’re very well coached, have a great tradition, and a great culture over there. I think it will be a great opportunity for our guys to come out and be competitive and try to make a name for us.”
Right now, the team is working through all of the positions, but coaches are looking for a lot of the seniors to step up.
Currently, there are 12 seniors.
McCollum said they are looking for them to make contributions on all facets of the game.
“I have told them instead of just being a two-way player, I’m asking them to be four-way players – offense, defense, special teams and a scout team player,” he said.
This way if they play offense, then they can be able to play the flip to another position such as defense or special teams.
When asked about how ready the team would be to play if there was a game on Friday night, McCollum said 65%.
“We are a work in progress,” he said. “We’re getting it every day, just the nuances of learning a new system, learning the way I do things, making sure that we’re putting the coaching staff together, adjusting to a new administration here and being without access to the field house,” he said.
He added it was a transition.
“There are a lot of moving parts and we’re trying to work through all of them,” he said.