LaGrange holds padded camp
Published 12:03 pm Thursday, July 19, 2018
By KEVIN ECKLEBERRY
Daily News
The LaGrange Grangers shared the field with the Shaw Raiders and Hardaway Hawks on Wednesday for a padded camp.
Chuck Gibbs, LaGrange’s first-year head coach, said it wasn’t so much about fierce competition, but about finding ways for each player to better himself.
“I told these kids that the teams that are coming in here, they’re helping us get better,” Gibbs said. “They’re not our enemies. They’re our scout team. They give us a look we don’t control, and they give us a different speed. It gives us different looks, and we’ll get after it.”
The camp gave LaGrange’s two potential starting quarterbacks, Charles Crawford and Sammy Caputo, an opportunity to get plenty of reps.
Both men took a lot of snaps and did some nice things during the camp.
“They’re our quarterbacks, one-two,” Gibbs said. “Both bring something to the table the other doesn’t, which is good. I think both are more than serviceable for our offense from a standpoint of they’re able to make the throws we’re going to need them to make to move the chains, and hopefully get it in the end zone.”
The camp was the continuation of a busy summer for LaGrange as it gets ready for the regular-season opener on Aug. 17 against Heard County.
There have been workouts at the school four days a week, and the Grangers have also participated in a handful of seven-on-seven competitions and position camps.
LaGrange will make the transition into official preseason practice on July 25, and teams can begin holding full-contact practices on Aug. 1.
LaGrange will host Kendrick in a preseason game on Aug. 10, and it will begin things for real a week later against Heard County.
Gibbs’ mission is to turn things around for a program that has struggled of late and is coming off a winless season.
His message to the players, regardless of their skill level, is to give maximum effort in all areas.
“It doesn’t take talent to work hard,” Gibbs said. “It doesn’t take talent to love your teammates. It doesn’t take talent to do your job. I think some of those things is where hopefully our community will see a change just from the standpoint of the demeanor of our kids, and the way we approach the game, and our preparedness, and thoroughness. Let’s be excellent, and win, lose or draw, we gave it our best shot.”
Gibbs added that following a game “you always go back to the drawing board, and wish you’d of done this, and shoulda, coulda, woulda done that, but at the end of the day for our kids to feel good about what they’ve accomplished is not measured in wins or losses. It’s measure in how close to my potential did I play tonight.”
While the team has worked hard this summer, Gibbs said he and the other coaches are also cognizant of the fact that it is a game, and he wants the players to enjoy themselves.
“Fun is not just a code word around here,” Gibbs said. “If our kids aren’t smiling, and laughing and loving each other, we’re in the wrong business.”
OF NOTE: For more photos from Wednesday’s camp, check out Facebook.com/LDNSports
