The Ridgefield High School football players build team unity with a centipede race. This was the day after the Spudders kicked off a new season with a practice at midnight.
Defensive coordinator Steve Rinard leads the Ridgefield Spudders in a rally during practice.
As the new interim coach of the Ridgefield High School football team, Chris Abrams had this crazy idea: why not kick the season off with a midnight practice?
“That was sick,” said senior defensive tackle Makani Schultz. “I think it motivated people who weren’t sure if they were ready to play football or if they wanted to. It motivated them to think this is going to be fun this year.”
Schultz, Brock Harrison, Simon Berkey, Calvin Staker, Isaac Bancroft, Clay Madsen and Hunter Abrams lead a fired-up group of Spudders who want to put last year’s 1-8 season behind them.
“For the season, everyone is ready to work because they know we could have something good this year,” Schultz said. “Nothing beats hard work. If you go out there and you lift and you run, work on technique, you can beat anybody. You just gotta burn the midnight oil.”
On the second day of practice, the Spudders competed in a centipede race. Five players locked their legs together and crawled on their hands. If they broke formation, they had to do push ups.
“It was a good drill to show that no one on this team can win the games for us on their own. We need to win the games together,” Schultz said.
Defensive coordinator Steve Rinard ran the practices for the rest of the first week while Abrams was absent. Rinard has been coaching at Ridgefield for seven years. He wants to see more consistency from the Spudders this season and the ability to finish games.
“Last season, there was some really good games that we played for two quarters and then we just couldn’t stay consistent or we would get a team into a third and long and then we would give up a penalty for a first down,” Rinard explained.
There’s nothing worse for a football team than getting a first down and having it called back or a touchdown taken away by a penalty.
“Yes. We had our fair share of those,” Rinard said.
He adds that there’s no substitute for hard work and attention to detail. The Spudders are giving their all in practice every day because they want to be better.
“Their effort right now is fantastic. I really appreciate it,” Rinard said. “I’m a huge advocate that hard work pays off. It might not now, it might not a week from now, but eventually you will see the efforts from your hard work pay off.”
