Fork Union’s players needed a break, a chance to line up opposite someone different than their teammates and to get away from campus for a while.
Covenant’s players needed a chance to go 11 versus 11, a challenge with the Eagles as-per-usual smaller roster.
But Tuesday night was about something else too.
“I want them to see that although someone may be wearing a different jersey they’re not your enemy,” said Covenant coach Seth Wilson. “We need to be thankful that they’re able to come out here and play against us.”
Nobody was anybody’s enemy Tuesday as two programs put in some serious work in a joint practice. Not a scrimmage, but a legitimate joint practice where the two teams did drills together and against each other, from passing game work to inside run segments and 2v1s for linemen, with both teams’ coaches working with each teams’ players before a scrimmage segment at the end.
“We’ve installed a new offense and we’re in the same basic defense, but we’ve gone from 4-4 to a 4-2-5 so it’s a great opportunity,” said Fork Union coach Mike Hooper. “And Seth coached with me so anything we can do to help him and his program, more than happy to help him. He’s a good young man.”
Joint practices are a pretty regular occurrence in the NFL. The New England Patriots and Houston Texans actually held one Tuesday as well. It gives those teams a chance to work against a different opponent and evaluate players near the cut line in more live situations. The Eagles and Blue Devils engaged in some similar practices Tuesday, with Fork Union getting a chance to work against someone different after spending a lot of time on campus running into and around each other.
“We’ve been in camp a week and as you know, you take young men and stick them in a rural community where there’s nothing to do and they get a little bit bored — well we want to keep them busy,” Hooper said. “This is a great chance to get away from school, and get something decent to eat…or what they consider decent, like pizza.”
Meanwhile, Covenant got a chance to work in an 11 on 11 situation.
“The only way that we’re going to get good at playing 11 on 11 is to 11 versus 11 and we can’t do that,” Wilson said. “I had to get some other people to come out here.”
The plan first took form when Hooper, who gave Wilson his first coaching job at Fork Union as an offensive coordinator, talked to Wilson at the Falcon Club’s annual preseason coaches meeting a couple of weeks ago. They’d briefly discussed a 7v7 meetup in the spring and Wilson wanted to build on his Fork Union connections with some kind of joint activity.
“Fork Union, I love what they stand for, I loved my time out there,” Wilson said. “I love all the coaches out there. We had to find ways for us to learn from each other.”
The plan for a joint practice came together and less than two weeks later, both teams took the field at Covenant. Wilson has been doing a number of innovative things with his practice structure to keep players healthy and safe while also getting a lot of learning and development in despite a small roster. This was another step in that direction.
“Our team is a small group so sometimes we’ll only be getting half lines and this was pretty much a full game experience and that’s totally different,” said Covenant quarterback John Huemme. “It’s a huge help getting ready for the scrimmage Friday and the rest of the season.”
The Eagles scrimmage Nansemond Suffolk Academy on the road Friday. The Blue Devils also got a live tuneup ahead of their scrimmage with Fluvanna County Friday, which should be a big help as FUMA continues to try and meld things together in that short time that’s unique to boarding schools.
“It was great coming up here, we’ve been doing the same thing over and over the past couple of days so it was good to come out here and see some different guys, hit different people,” said FUMA’s Logan Justice. “It was a good experience.”
