Winona Christian football coach Junior Graham said the only way to learn to be physical is to be physical in practice.
And that’s what the Stars did this past week in an off week after French Camp cancelled their game with the Stars.
“We had a good week,” Graham said. “We finally got all of our kids back on Friday and had a good practice. We got some things accomplished and hopefully can try to get the flow going again this week. We would have rather played but we had a good week of practice.”
Graham said the Stars got back to old-fashioned football early in the week. “We were real physical, which is something we hadn’t been in practice so far,” Graham said. “It wasn’t to punish our kids, it’s just that we have to be more physical. We aren’t going to get any better blocking garbage cans. Monday and Tuesday were very physical and then we did lots of special teams on Wednesday and watched Oak Hill film from last year on Thursday. We went out on Friday and had a good practice and turned the loose and went and scouted Oak Hill.”
The Stars will travel to West Point to take on Oak Hill, who is 0-2 on the season. They had to forfeit the opening game with East Rankin and then lost 59-41 to Benton last week.
“It all starts with their quarterback, he’s a very special kid,” Graham said. “I’ll tell you this, it was one of the longest games I have ever been to. There were 204 plays in the game and the lights went off at halftime and that extended the game even further. They have a new coach but as far as scheme, they are basically doing the same thing they did last year so our Friday practice was not in vain as far as preparing for them.”
Oak Hill led at halftime before Benton got rolling in the second half. But Graham said he was impressed with quarterback Cameron Dill.
“He’s a really good football player,” Graham said of Dill. “He has a good arm and is really smart and gets the ball out of his hands. He’s what small-school athletics is about. He’s a good basketball player and a good baseball player. He’s all about Oak Hill and isn’t looking to go anywhere else and I can respect that. He will be the only guy we face this year with a skill set like he does.”
Graham said his offense will have to get rolling this week.
“We will have to score in the 30s to have a chance to win,” Graham said. “Our quarterback had a really good week of practice and I think he will be better this week. Carroll was his first-ever game to play at quarterback and I think he will be better this week. I think now that we have everybody, we will start to establish our identity as a football team. Oak Hill is a lot like us and doesn’t have a lot of numbers so I think it will be a good football game.”
