PEABODY – Summer is wrapping up, which only means one thing: High School football. The Peabody Tanners have already started off strong.
“We won’t know anything until the scrimmage with Lynnfield. But right now, after two days, the kids are excited, and the coaches are excited,” said Peabody’s Head coach Mark Bettencourt.
Peabody runs a tight ship when it comes to practice. Drills started after each buzzer, and kids were back on the field after water breaks by the time the clock hit zero. A constant shout of being at your station before the time is out or you shouldn’t be walking.
“When you’re moving, you’re just moving. You have to encourage the kids, and that builds momentum. You’re encouraging them to keep going,” said coach Doug Santos. “The more they listen to someone encouraging them, then they start pushing themselves more, and that’s all we want.”
“As much as I don’t like giving credit to other teams, the segmented practice idea came from Marblehead’s coach Jim Rudloff. I listened to him talk at the coach’s conventions, and one thing I noticed as he was talking was the use of a practice segmented board. As soon as the clinic was over, we set out to get one,” said Bettencourt. “The big thing this summer was to try and figure out how to use it and how to put it into practice. This way, they know that they’re not going to be out here for three hours and that they’re going to get the job done.”
There are fifteen segments, each with its own time length. Each segment had a different drill or different stations. After the last segment, players went into conditioning, then a final stretching session before one last huddle. “Practices wore on, and with this, you don’t have that. There’s no ‘give it one more rep’ or ‘one more rep’ that turned our practice into a three-hour practice. So, this keeps us on point,” said Bettencourt.
The preseason has only just started right now; the team is only wearing their helmets before Tuesday, when they’ll add shoulder pads, and on Thursday will start the full gear. Right now, with only having helmets, the team is brought back to the basics.
“Right now, we’re focused on the fundamentals, such as tackling properly. All the small things lead up to the big things. Doing at low speed and very low impact makes sure that they’re getting the proper techniques,” said Bettencourt. “This allows us to break it down and to learn how to play the game correctly.”
“We want to see the best in the kids because they all have potential. They just don’t know it yet, and that’s what we’re trying to get out of them,” said Santos.
This season for the Tanners is all united under a single motivation, to make their captain, Mikey Mastrocola, proud. Mastrocola was diagnosed with Leukemia over the summer, which sent shock waves through the team.
“The big thing is that this team is motivated, which all starts with Mikey Mastrocola. The tragedy that the young man is going through, being a captain of this team, being a leader of this team, and not having him here,” said Bettencourt. “The heartbreak is what is motivating these kids. It’s motivating these kids to give everything they have every second of practice. Even the Freshman who don’t know Mikey can feel the impact of him not being here. And that I think has really lit a fire under them.”
Maddi Filip can be reached at [email protected]