ROCKINGHAM – Two weeks isn’t a lot of time when trying to prepare for an upcoming football season. But that’s all the Richmond Senior High School varsity football team had to work with, as spring practice drew to a close last week.
In the words of second-year head coach Bryan Till, the team is nowhere close to where it needs to be when the Raiders play their first game on August 17. But the players and the program are right where they need to be at this point in the season — if that makes sense.
“There were a lot of positives we saw during spring practice,” Till said of the 10-day workout period. “The kids had a lot of fun and were working hard, but that doesn’t mean anything if we can’t carry that same intensity throughout the summer.
“We’re not where we need to be,” Till continued. “But if we were, then we’d have to raise our expectations. I thought our players met our expectations (for spring practice), but we need to continue to have a sense of urgency as we prepare to get going for our first game.”
As Till’s program is in its second go-around, he noted that not only is he in a more comfortable position at this point in the season compared to last season, but so are his players and coaching staff.
“We are so far ahead from where we were during spring practices last year,” Till said, explaining that with his system firmly in place, the expectations are already understood by all involved. “As coaches, we’re able to coach from a scheme standpoint, as for those players coming back, they understand the program’s expectations.
“The kids also have a better understanding of our culture,” Till added. “The learning curve from last season has been taken out. Our younger talent is really good, so those younger guys, knowing what it’s going to take, pushed up the level of competition with our older players. Competition raises the level of performance.”
And the level of performance was what Till expected it to be, as he said it’s hard to measure the true grit of his team without playing in an actual game. Noting the team was “blessed with good weather,” Till said the Raiders managed to get in all but 30 minutes of scheduled practice time, which is good for this time of year considering the likelihood of pop up thunderstorms.
Aside from working on position-specific drills, the Raiders also hit the weightroom and watched some film of their progress so far this spring. With a young rising core of players, Till also said he was pleased with the 11 members of the Leadership Council, who recently completed a 10-week training period.
The Leadership Council, headed by quarterbacks coach Jay Jones, was established by Till in February to help give instrumental players the responsibility to act, be and develop as leaders on and off the field. And fresh out of their training period, all 11 players had ample opportunities to apply their new skill set over the past two weeks.
“Our Leadership Council guys did what we expected of them, and they were able to fulfill some of their roles,” Till said. “This was their first chance to practice what they’ve learned, and all of them were willing to step up and be leaders.
“There are some areas we need to correct, but that’s part of the growing process,” the head coach continued. “I am proud of each of those guys.”
Some instances where Leadership Council members had the opportunity to initiate their roles were when they spoke to the entire team of rising sophomores, juniors and seniors at the end of practice. Till expressed that it was evident that players like Brian Bowden and Joerail White came “prepared” to speak and they accomplished their desired goals as vocal leaders.
Other times, the Leadership Council players addressed their teammates when they became frustrated with a scheme or a drill. Till said it was “refreshing to see a higher standard” implemented by his players to pick one another up. He also noted that it was nice to see the older guys, such as rising seniors Jake Ransom and Malik Stanback, hold younger players to the same standard as they hold themselves.
One of the biggest things that Till and his coaching staff took away from spring practices was the team’s overwhelming willingness to embrace the new, higher standards that are synonymous with winning and tradition-rich programs.
“The first thing we expect our kids to do is show up,” Till said when explaining what his all-encompassing vision of higher expectations means. “And then we expect them to perform at their absolute highest level. And it should be done in everything we do — whether it’s on the field or cleaning the locker room. They all know what it is and can hold each other to that.”
While the season is still very young, Stanback, who had a breakout season as a junior in 2017, is starting to attract the attention of several college programs. By the end of spring practices, he had raked in six offers, ranging from Gardner-Webb University, to the Citadel, to Old Dominion University. Till said that the next step for the wide receiver is to figure out which camps he’ll attend, which will “streamline the process for him to make an informed decision” on where he’ll play college ball.
The Raiders will take a short hiatus as end-of-the-year testing gets underway at Richmond this week. The next time the Raiders will hit the practice field will be on June 11, as they’ll workout for two hours a day from Monday through Thursday for two weeks.
On June 14 and 15, Richmond will participate in a 7 vs. 7 drill at UNC Chapel Hill, and will then send all of its varsity players to N.C. State for a football camp. Till noted that he’d like to thank the community for its support in getting almost all of the varsity players their physicals.
The Raiders football program has several 7 vs. 7 competitions lined up at home throughout the month of June, and the ROSports Department will report on them throughout the summer.
