Georgia Southern Football Begins 2013 Preseason Camp with Split Practices
8/2/2013 11:04:00 AM | Football
VIDEO: Interview with Coach Monken | VIDEO: Interview with Jerick McKinnon | VIDEO: Interview with Josh Gebhardt
STATESBORO, Ga. – With the intent of getting Georgia Southern's newcomers and underclassmen more repetitions and personal attention, Coach Jeff Monken split the sessions today, August 1st, for the Eagles' first day of preseason practice. Newcomers hit the practice fields on the banks of "Beautiful Eagle Creek" earlier on Thursday morning, starting at 9:30 a.m. with the veterans arriving at approximately 11 a.m. with meetings prior to the start of practice.
"This was an opportunity for us to get more reps for the young guys, and I don't know if we got more reps for the older guys, like we would have with a 24-period practice, but think it was beneficial in teaching those guys and slowing the pace down," said Georgia Southern Head Football Coach Jeff Monken. "It makes the tempo different, so it doesn't necessarily have the same intensity that you have when all 105 (players) are out here together, but I think it is good in terms of teaching. We'll get that intensity here in a couple of days when we get to a normal practice schedule."
For the first session of the morning, it was all "new" business for the new Eagles as they hit the practice fields running after crossing the bridge over a flowing "Beautiful Eagle Creek." Overcast skies produced some rain showers early, then provided enough humidity as the newcomers went through individual and position drills after the stretch period. Coach Monken kept on the move, watching each group, providing guidance and touching on some of the small aspects of the game that can have a big impact.
After newcomers' session was complete, the they stayed to watch a few periods of the second group's practice to see the tempo and nature of the work. The Eagle veterans went 13 periods following stretch with position drills, skelly and team work in jerseys, shorts and helmets.
Meetings with offense and defense and then weightlifting finished the afternoon for the Eagles. Position and team meetings this evening will close out the day before lights out at 10:30 p.m. to prepare for day two. Georgia Southern will keep the same schedule Friday for its second day of preseason practice with one group beginning at approximately 9:30 a.m. and the second group at 11 a.m.
NEW TECHNOLOGY IN HELMETS: Members of the media interviewed Director of Sports Medicine and Head Athletic Trainer Brandy Clouse and biomechanics professor Barry Munkasy, Ph.D., about the new Helmet Impact Telemetry System (HITS) employed for the first time at practice on Thursday morning. Georgia Southern is the only collegiate program in the state of Georgia with this system, designed to provide immediate feedback for athletic trainers and researchers on the severity of impacts to the head during practices and games. Forty helmets will be equipped with this technology with six sensors transmitting data wirelessly to a laptop with software that records and measures the impacts while being monitored by staff. The initiative from Georgia Southern University President Brooks Keel made possible the addition of the equipment after Georgia Southern University received a $385,000 grant from the National Institutes of Health in 2011 to study concussions.
Georgia Southern Athletics provides up-to-date information on all its sports through its official website, GSEagles.com, through social media channels facebook.com/GSAthletics and twitter.com/GSAthletics, and its new "Eagles GATA" mobile app for Android and iOS. Fans can follow Coach Jeff Monken on his official twitter account, @CoachJeffMonken.
