Published: May 14, 2008 03:41 pm            

Weber works 'em out

New Ada head football coach conducts first spring drills

Ada — They came from far and wide for this opening day of Ada Cougar spring football practice Tuesday. From as far as Marlow and OKC St. Mary, as wide as Velma and Alma.

New Ada head coach Matt Weber and assistant Dusty Raper came from Marlow, assistants Joe Weber from St. Mary and Greg Mitchell from Velma-Alma — all working out their current contracts before working out the Cougars.

Two short of 70 Cougar hopefuls responded and several more are said to be headed down the hill at Ada High to the Craig McBroom Football Complex after school is out. They either were not out for football or left the team a year ago.

The day was devoted to defense with Joe Weber, legendary Davis coach and Matt’s father, running the show. Wednesday will see the offense with Matt taking the lead. It was the first time the son-father duo had worked together and they played off each other flawlessly.

“Other than him chewing on me when I was a player, it was our first time. It was neat and we’ll get better and better. He will be running our defense and I’ll do the offense. Yes, it was fun working with him, but I had a great time with all the coaches today,” Matt Weber said.

Timing is very important to the Weber scheme of practice.

“We put more into one hour and 15 minutes, get more reps than others do in two and a half hours,” Matt Weber said.

He added that the number one goal for spring practice this year is to get the players comfortable with the new style and pace of practice.

“I was very pleased with their attitude and attentiveness to any coach talking to them,” Weber said.

Though the numbers were a bit higher at Ada, Weber was used to around 50-55 at Marlow.

Veterans back from the old staff were led by Nathan Elliott, Trey Owens and Robbie Powell, Trevor Robbins from the junior high staff and graduate assistant Brandon Rosa. Plus a plus in anyone’s book — long-time Ada line coach Don Byrd.

After forays into Texas with the brothers McBroom — Larry and Gary — Byrd returned Ada to retire, but instead found himself going another round in the trenches for his alma mater.

Practice runs daily through Friday with the football calendar team photo slated for 2:30 p.m. Friday. The following week will see Monday-Friday sessions.

        

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