July 19, 2017 at 1:10 p.m.
Tackling an emphasis this week at RHS football camp
Tackling an emphasis this week at RHS football camp
The Rhinelander High School football team is holding its annual summer team camp, which started Monday and wraps up today. The highlight of the camp, according to fourth-year head coach Chris Ferge, are new tackling rings that allow the team to work on proper technique without donning shoulder pads.
"(This) makes camp a lot more exciting," Ferge said Monday following a roughly 20-minute tackling station toward the end of Monday's practice in which the team worked on four separate drills. "There isn't going to be a day where we're not going to tackle. There isn't going to be a day where we won't work on pursuit. We're going to be an aggressive team. We're going to get better at that for sure."
Roughly 50 players are in attendance this week for an event that caps off the team's planned activities for the summer.
"I want more, but I love all the guys here. They're giving good energy and I expect them to go harder," Ferge said, talking about the offseason. "As a program, no one complained. There's lot of opportunities for kids and we definitely had a lot of kids at 7-on-7, a lot of different kids lifting weights, lots of opportunities for them and a lot of the kids took advantage of them. Now we're going to definitely move forward with all the techniques and all the things we decided we're going to use."
While passing is the main point of emphasis during the 7-on-7 season - which included a six-week league on Thursday nights and a tournament last month in Wausau - there's more focus on the running game this week as well as individualized coaching for positions.
"We're running on offense. We're working on certain plays," Ferge said. "We'd rather be good at a few plays right now, work on the basics and then we'll expand later on. It allows us to move forward once the season starts because most of our guys are here to work on the basics."
The timing of the camp is important as well. Ferge said he likes running camp in late July as it serves as a natural lead-in to fall practice, which begins Aug. 1.
"I look at it a couple ways," he said. "We do get a lot of terminology out. They understand the fundamentals, the stance, what their requirements are, what they need to do for responsibility. But it's also conditioning for a lot of these guys, even our coaches, being out in the 85-degree heat or 75-degree heat for four days, get used to it. We get a little break and come right back to it."
The Hodags are looking for a turnaround season after winning only five games - and going 0-for-18 in the Great Northern Conference - since Ferge took the helm in 2014. Throughout practice words and phrases such as "all out," "max effort," "energy" and "pursuit" were barked out often by the coaching staff.
"Our guys have got to know how to exhaust themselves on every single play and every single drill so that they're tough and ready to play," Ferge said.
The Hodags will hold their Family Day intrasquad practice Aug. 5, scrimmage at Northland Pines Aug. 11 and will open the season at Prescott Aug. 18.
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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