Dayton's Stewart discusses first week of fall practices

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Stewart discusses first week of fall practices

By MIKE GEORGE

Published: 08.11.08

Dayton’s athletic director and head football coach Jerry Stewart sat down Saturday morning after practice and talked about the first week of practices, giving his thoughts on where the Broncos are at this stage of the game.

“The non-contact work in shorts and helmets has gone pretty good,†said Stewart. “Friday we had our first day in pads and had a lot of kids who didn’t hydrate and wound up having to take a couple of them to Liberty to get IV’s and get fluids in them. You have to hydrate properly each day and the night before and not just the day of practice.â€

The coach then described the first “contact†workouts.

“For our first day in pads, to be very honest, it was about as bad as we’ve been in 12 years,†lamented Stewart. “Not because the kids didn’t try, but it’s just that we’re trying to fill a lot of holes. The kids are trying hard, but we’ve got nine kids on defense who have never played, so they’ve just got to keep trying harder, but we’re a very poor football team right now.â€

The coach then got specific as to what the team’s needs were.

“We have the same question marks,†Stewart explained. “We’re still trying to find a couple of linebackers, we need a couple of strong safeties, 8-techs we call them, and we’ve got a lot of people standing around that are hurt and can’t get in yet. We still need a running back. We don’t know who our running back is.â€

The coach went on to list the candidates and added that a new face had joined the mix.

“Right now we have Smokey (Darius Detiege), B.J. Jones and now we’re adding Jakari Delasbous, a freshman,†said the Bronco boss. “We’re putting a freshman up there to try. That’s a sad state when you have to have a freshman. The last freshmen we had to do that with were Mike Dugat, and he was really special, and Wilford Bowers who was also special. We had “the beast†and the leading rusher in the history of Dayton in Mike, so maybe that’s an omen for Jakari. I don’t know if he’s quite as dedicated as Mike was, although he’s bigger than Mike was at 183 lbs, but we’re going to have to see what he can do.â€

The coach went back to the episodes of cramping due to improper or a lack of hydration.

The conditioning was fine until those kids jumped out there with us trying to find some hitters, and we lost some to the heat,†said Stewart. “Like I said, it’s not because they don’t want to, but talent-wise we’re just not very good right now.â€

The coach told both his coaches and kids not to rest on last year because last year is gone and the Broncos are only going to be as good as their next ball game. No one is going to remember last year after this year starts.

“What we’re faced with having to do is get game experience in our two scrimmages,†commented Stewart. “But if it came to it, we couldn’t stop water right now.â€

The coach got off defense and got on offense for a minute.

“Offensively, we thought Cody did a good job of throwing and AJ (Dugat) did a good job of catching the ball,†Stewart stated. “But here’s what we’re lacking right now – we’re still looking for some John Gable/Ford Smesny type leadership out there. Somebody’s got to step up and go hard every time, every play and set the pace. We’re still looking for that ‘war-daddy’ in the middle of our defense like Brent Kimmy. We want Tony Hill to become that, but to become that you’ve got to do more than just talk about it.â€

That led the coach to describe the culprit holding this team back – talk.

“It’s like I told all our kids, right now we do a great job of talking about being good, but we’re just not doing a good job of being good. So, there’s the difference. We’re not very good right now, and we’ve got to do a better job of coaching this next week – and we are – we’re fixin’ to do a whole lot better job of coaching, too. We’ve got to get these babies ready to play, and get these kids to grow up. We went from a very experienced defensive team to a very inexperienced. That’s ok, because we’re going to use the two scrimmages and two pre-district games to get ready.â€

The Broncos scrimmage West Orange-Stark in Dayton this Saturday with the varsity on the field at 7 p.m. Then, the following Friday, the Broncos will journey to Lumberton to meet the Raiders with a similar format; JV and freshmen at 5 p.m., followed by the varsity at 7.

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[Guest Jags]

;D Man he was positive but at least told the truth. Better get in shape.

[BMTSoulja1]

This was reverse psychology, no doubt.  those kids will read this and be fired up to get it together. 

[Guest Pirate V Ball]

I hear he tells it like it is though.