Getting acquainted

First-year Sikeston head football coach Kent Gibbs yells instructions as senior Chase Ferrell prepares to throw a pass (Photos by David Jenkins, Staff)

New Sikeston football coach conducts first camp of summer

SIKESTON -- School has barely been out two weeks, but the Sikeston football staff is wasting no time in getting things started for the upcoming fall season.

New Bulldog head coach Kent Gibbs and the rest of the staff is conducting a football camp for the rest of this week in an effort to, no only get to know each other, but to get the fundamentals and terminology down under a new system.

On the first day of camp on Monday, Gibbs said "a little over 50" kids attended the camp.

"That's a pretty good number for the first time out," said Gibbs. "We had 70 kids sign up. It's not bad for the first time out, but we'd like to get 70 here."

Sikeston players go over tackling drills on Monday

Gibbs said several kids are involved in other summer activities, including baseball and basketball camps.

The practice had an intense, high-paced tempo. Players moved from station to station after a short period with constant movement and constant teaching.

"We're going to get a whole lot quicker pace than what it is right now," said Gibbs. "We want an up-tempo practice. My theory is why should you stay three hours if you can get it done in two hours and 15 minutes or two hours. We want up-tempo. We're not going to sit around a lot and we're not going to do a lot of watching. There'll be times over the course of the year that maybe we do a little bit of that, but at this stage of the game it's gotta be go-

go-go-go-go."

With a few new coaches and several new players at the camp, Gibbs also says it's important to develop a team cohesiveness.

"We want them to start to develop a little bit of trust amongst their teammates and the coaches," said Gibbs. "If we can get them to start working and developing that trust and belief in each other -- that's my number one goal. We're just trying to get a general understanding of the kids and them get a general understanding of us."

The camp is not full-contact, but the players are wearing shoulder pads and helmets. Still, some of the drills involve some contact.

"You can work on fundamentals techniques and things like that," said Gibbs. "It's kind of hard to work a lot of technique because you're not full pads. So we're working a lot of scheme and basic fundamentals that we can do without hitting each other."

Weightlifting sessions are now being offered at the Field House Monday through Thursday from 6-10 a.m. There will be another football camp from July 16-20 which will include the junior high programs.