Sports

WHITE HALL LOOKING FOR RESPECT IN ’08

By Sean Saunders/of the commercial staff
Thursday, July 31, 2008 10:51 AM CDT

WHITE HALL — The White Hall Bulldogs showed up to their first practice of the season Wednesday with signs posted on their lockers.

Pine Bluff Commercial/Ralph Fitzgerald White Hall placekicker Heath Heinrich puts a foot into the ball Wednesday during the first day of football practice.

The most prominent features on those signs were two words written in big, bold letters. They read “No Respect!”

Even on the first day of practice, the White Hall football team had bulletin board material. With the rush for high school publications to release their preseason specials, the coaching staff already had an idea of what the media thought of the team.

Following a 2-8 2007 campaign, the preseason publications do not have White Hall rated highly. Hooten’s Arkansas Football predicts the Bulldogs to finish fifth while VYPE Magazine has them at sixth and Arkansas Sports 360 doesn’t mention them at all in its 5A preview, the signs read.

To try to avoid living up to those low expectations, some of the White Hall seniors demanded that the offseason workload had to increase. Wednesday was the day to see how much of an effect the enhanced training had on the team.

“Our varsity wanted to do this,” White Hall coach Mike Vaughn said. “It’s something they talked about during offseason. The more work you put in, the better you have to be as a team.”

White Hall coaches subjected the team to the first-day fitness test, that involved a lifting test and a run test. The lifting test involved doing a certain number of repetitions on the hang clean based on each player’s offseason maxes.

The run test involved running the 100-meter dash 10 times with a minute rest in between. If a player did not lift enough or run fast enough based on position, then he had to run extras after practice.

Most players appeared dead tired following the run test, but Vaughn got the desired result from the test — team cohesion. Senior athlete J.J. Martin went around firing up the team, repeating the phrase “We start the season today.”

The White Hall coaches are also excited to get the season under way, Vaughn said.

“The whole staff is excited to get back into the season,” Vaughn said. “This bunch has been a pleasure to work with during the offseason. We stayed later in offseason than we ever have before because they wanted that extra work.”

The Bulldogs still have a full week of practice in shorts and helmets before the whole state can start practicing in pads on Aug. 7. White Hall opens up the season against Hot Springs Lakeside on Sept. 5.

Print this story   |   Email this story