Cougars Begin Fall Practice

The Piedmont Academy football team has now moved from off season preparations to preseason work.

Coach Rhett Farmer’s Cougars began fall practice Monday and will continue working for the remainder of this week in shorts and helmets, in accordance with GISA rules. Full contact work is scheduled to begin next Monday.

“Offensively, we will look to build on what we’ve been doing all summer,” Farmer said on the eve of preseason practice. “It will be more of a team setting now than position oriented work. Basically, we are having a continuation of spring.”

During the opening week of practice, the players will work on speed assessment and the coaching staff will record 40-yard dash times. Work in the kicking game will also be emphasized.

“We will also have to get used to the heat,” Farmer said of week one.
{{more}}
The Cougars will hold two practices next Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday with a morning and evening session. An evening practice will be held next Thursday with the players moving to the regular after-school time frame Friday, Aug. 7.

“We start school earlier than most GISA schools,” Farmer said. “With our numbers, we will get enough reps to get in shape. I feel confident those three days of two-a-days will be about what we need.”

A scheduled preseason scrimmage Aug. 14 has been temporarily scratched since Monroe Academy closed in recent weeks. Farmer said he would like to find another team to work against but knows that it is not guaranteed.

“If we don’t, we will line up and knock heads with Gatewood in our season opener,” the first-year Piedmont coach said.