Marion area coaches: Football season now feels like football season

MARION — The shorts can be put away. Hoodies are replacing the short sleeve shirts. Get the jackets and coats ready.

Summer is over.

Guess who's excited about that?

"Friday night felt like football," Elgin head coach Zack Winslow said two weeks ago when the weather first broke. "There was a little chill in the air. It wasn’t freezing cold, but you had a little bit of a chill. That was refreshing and awesome compared to playing in the 90s or it felt like the 90s not that long ago."

The Heart of Ohio is about two weeks into autumn weather, and the area's football coaches are glad to see it return by midseason.

"It’s great for me. It’s football weather. Being an offensive lineman, you know when the weather starts to change that ball going in the air a lot starts to change, too. That’s when you start to rely on the offensive line," said Ridgedale coach Corey Chatman who played along the line in high school at Mansfield Senior and in college at Wittenberg.

Last year, high school football was largely played in summer-like conditions for the first eight weeks of the season. This year, fall came on Sept. 22, a day before the Week 6 games.

"(On Sept. 23) during warmups, I heard multiple kids say this feels like football season now," Winslow said.

It's noticeable on Friday nights, but the break in weather can be impactful throughout the week.

"It helps a lot," Chatman said. "We still do the water breaks, but I think you’re not sweating a lot and getting cramps and things like that."

At this point of the season, no football team wants long practices. They want to get their work done as efficiently as possible and move about their business.

"If you’re healthy, hopefully for weeks 6, 7 and 8, you should have your routine down and your kids should know what to expect every day," Winslow said. "You’re making weekly game adjustments versus still trying to figure out how to run your stuff."

Practicing in 60 degrees as opposed to 80-plus degrees helps with that end. Kids are fresher longer. They're not tripping over their tongues in drills due to the heat. They can focus better when installing game plans and working on plays.

"It allows us to work a little more from the mental end only because we’re not having to spend as much time worrying about conditioning or the heat," River Valley coach Doug Green said. "We’re able to go out and get done what we want to get done. Otherwise, if we have rain or bad weather, it doesn’t come into play that much for us."

The change in seasons also signifies other changes for the players that go unseen by the fans in the stands on Friday nights, according to Green.

"We’re getting into the mid- to the later part of the season, so you’re dealing with a lot of other issues that come into play as well. You’re in the middle of the grind right now. The classwork that the kids are getting into, they're getting into the grind with that. There’s more and more that’s heaping on top of them. We try to talk to them as much as we can," Green said.

Players can have bad days. Others can be having good days. It's a mix that coaches have to massage and manage.

"When it’s time to come out to practice, we need to make sure we’re flipping the switch and going into practice mode for football," he said. "If you had a bad day, forget about it and make this part of your day better. If it was a good day, we want to continue that into practice."

Good day or bad, all can agree football weather during football season is a welcome addition.

rmccurdy@gannett.com

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