By Mike Marzelli, Pine Bluff Commercial
While football teams across the South have escaped the searing heat of the past week by practicing at night or indoors, Arkansas-Pine Bluff has worked out in black beneath the mid-afternoon sun — both out of necessity and by choice.
UAPB doesn’t have a lighted practice field or an indoor facility but head coach Mo Forte says he would likely keep practice outside in the 100-plus degree heat even if there were other alternatives in order to make sure his team is ready opening day in three weeks.
“We’re playing at 1 p.m. on Sept. 1 so if we stay cool now, we’re not going to be fully prepared for that,” Forte said of his team’s opener at Mississippi Valley State in Itta Bena, Miss, the heart of the Mississippi Delta region. “This is as tough as it gets now but in three weeks we’ll be thanking ourselves because we’ll be prepared for those conditions because this definitely does help us prepare.
“We want to be conditioned at all costs. We’re not the most talented team in the league or in the country so we want to be the best conditioned.”
Each of the past seven days of practice have seemingly been hotter than the previous day, with Monday’s 105-degree temperature at 3 p.m. forcing Forte to end practice early to keep his players fresh for today’s double session, which includes an afternoon scrimmage.
With temperatures expected to continue rising, the coaching staff has made sure to take extra breaks during practice and make water available to the players at all times.
“Any time we practice, heat or no heat, any player can take water at any time,” Forte said. “We take every measure we can to protect these guys. We make sure to take several water breaks during practice and we give them three or four minutes between each drill to hydrate and after practice we make sure they get re-hydrated when they go to the cafeteria for dinner. Then we tell them to make sure they keep taking in fluids throughout the night to replace all the electrolytes they lost that day.”
Forte has also noticed that his players have been understanding of their plight.
“I don’t ever hear our team complaining about the heat because they know what’s at stake,” he said. “They know that the hours they put in sweating on that field now are the ones that will make a difference when it counts.”
Defense continues to impress
Forte was very complimentary of what he saw from Monte Coleman’s defense Monday.
“We were very aggressive on defense and I was very happy with what I saw,” Forte said. “We’ve shown great speed on D and we’re so much farther ahead this year than we were at this time last year.”
Banged up
Tight end Remo Gay and cornerback Darrell Trice, both projected starters, have been nursing undisclosed injuries that limited them on Monday.
Neither injury is considered serious and Forte hopes both will be able to practice today.
Practice closed
The Lions’ remaining 21 practices, including both scheduled for today, will be closed to the public as the coaching staff begins to game plan for Valley.
Forte anticipates opening practice back up after Week One.
“This is when we start working specifically for [Valley] and we start working on plays that we feel are going to work against them so that’s why we’ll shut it down,” Forte said. “It’s not that we worry about Valley’s coaches coming up here and spying on us, there are just always overzealous fans that want to do that.
“Once it gets to the second or third game we’ll open it back up because everyone we’ll know what we’re doing by then.”
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