As first practices loom, prep football coaches say game is safer

The first day of practice. Coaches love it. Players? Not so much.

Monday is the first official day of practice allowed by the MSHSL for fall high school sports teams. Athletes in cross-country, football, soccer, girls' tennis, girls' swimming and volleyball will get together with their coaches and perspective teammates to prepare for their upcoming seasons, which in most cases begin in about two weeks.

"Call me weird, call me crazy," Roseville football coach Chris Simdorn said. "I'm 48 years old, and I still toss and turn on Sunday night, looking at the clock."

For many who played football and remember the torment of preseason practices, however, anticipating the first day of practice was akin to waiting in the principal's office. Feelings of nervousness tinged with dread, thinking of all sorts of horrors — some real, others exaggerated — that lay ahead.

Conditioning meant endless sprints. Drills were often designed to see who was willing to hit and who might need a little encouragement.

And it usually took place twice a day.

Thing is, those days are largely just memories. Football has evolved in recent years due to better education about injuries, increased attention to teaching skills and fundamentals and a desire from coaches and players to hit the ground running. A team not prepared for preseason practices is already a team that's fallen behind its competition.

Even first-year coaches know more about their teams than they did in the past. New Osseo coach Ryan Stockhaus said he doesn't look at the first day of practice any differently than other summer sessions with his team.

"I just look at it as an extension of what we're been doing all summer," Stockhaus said.

Better knowledge and awareness of health issues have changed practice routines drastically. Teams can no longer have two practices in one day on consecutive days. Water breaks, years ago considered signs of weakness, are freely encouraged.

"I do remember a time when people thought water made you soft," recalled Minnetonka coach Dave Nelson, a high school coach for more than 30 years whose father, Stan, was a Minnesota Football Coaches Association Hall of Fame coach at Anoka. "That's laughable now."

Things that once were common, such as challenge drills pitting player against player, are rarely seen anymore. Hitting and contact are kept to a minimum and done with an eye to teaching proper technique. Many teams eschew full-scale tackling in practice altogether.

Today, the game is much safer. Even methods of tackling have changed, with rugby-style tackling — grabbing and rolling a player to the ground — taught over the traditional wrap-and-drive style taught for many years. And woe be to any coach who encourages wanton aggression.

"One term I used to hear a lot when I was playing was 'ear-holing'," said Simdorn, who played at Minneapolis Roosevelt before he had an award-winning college career at North Dakota State. "Coaches wanted an aggressive mentality and for you to lay a stick on someone. You would never hear that today. And that's good."

And better, most coaches agree. Time previously spent on developing machismo is now devoted to teaching.