When the Georgia High School Athletic Association ruled last May to regulate the number of practices per day that football teams could hold and their duration, head football coach Chad Phillips said he would not hold camp.
He went through with his plans and he canceled the team’s summer camp at the FCCLA cabin grounds at Covington, something the Panthers have been going to for 14 years.
“Every player to come through the football program has been to the camp,” Phillips said. “It has become a tradition.”
The camp, which lasted four days, was an ideal opportunity for underclassmen to bond with the upperclassmen and for the team to create chemistry, Phillips said.
GHSA’s ruling came as a result of an increase in the number of heat-related player deaths during the 2011 summer practice season.
The GHSA rule states that no two-a-day practice days are allowed within consecutive days. The rule also states that no practice is allowed to run more than two hours. On two-a-day practice days, the practice length can be no longer than a combined five hours.
To make up for that lost experience, Phillips arranged for a week-long practice at the end of July. It consisted of one-a-day practices on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, and two-a-day practices on Tuesday and Thursday. The camp tradition of a devotional after the practices still happened and the seniors ran it.
“We have a great group of seniors that stay tight,” Phillips said. “They make a big difference”.
Phillips said he doesn’t think not going to camp hampered his team’s development. He said the practices stayed consistent and that they added special team’s practices to the weightlifting sessions to save time at official practices.
The Panthers are 1-1 as they travel to play West Forsyth at 7:30 p.m. Friday.