Written by Newspaper Staff Reporter Lexie Hunter

Football is one of America’s favorite sports. Unless you are a football player, you really don’t know what happens at practices and workouts. Here at Allatoona, our football team practices Monday through Thursday from about 3:30 to 6:30 pm, with games on Friday.

At practice, the team splits into groups based on their positions and warms up. One of our defensive players, Julian McRae, says “First we stretch special teams, then we go to our coaches and do whatever we need to do for that day then we go to Coach Smith to break down plays about the team we will go against that week. Then we run at the end on Mondays and Tuesdays.”

On the other side of the ball, offensive player Bennett Christian says, “The tight ends go from individual periods, to team periods, to scrimmages.” At football practice, the central theme is specialization. The team is working on perfecting their plays to win each game. To help learn from mistakes, the team will often watch film on their off days, either independently or as a team.

After graduating many valuable players, the team is trying to find their balance with their new talent. Bennett says, “The team this year is just one big family. We are together every day, basically.” Julian says, “How you do anything is how you do everything.” In the words of a football player, practice hard, play hard.