Published: August 19, 2008 06:27 pm            

Cougs avoid rain in 'The Dunham'

Ada — Ada High’s cavernous new indoor practice facility saved a practice for the first time Monday as the Cougars got out of the rain in the confines of 80 yards of artificial turf.

It was a day of defense as coordinator Joe Weber guided the practice in his 5-2 alignment as they worked clad in helmets, shoulder pads and shorts.

“The building was a life saver. We got a lot accomplished today,” he said.

The size of ‘The Dunham’ was evident as one full-scale scrimmage took place on 25-yards of one end of the field and another at the other end. On the side, head coach Matt Weber worked with several offensive line specialists.

Matt Weber said last Friday’s Maroon-White scrimmage revealed many things.

“We saw a football team with only four practice days. We threw a lot at them during those four days. We saw a lot of miscues Friday night, but the good news is that all of them are correctable,” he said.

He hopes to learn even more as intrasquad turns into intersquad in the three-way scrimmage at Pauls Valley Friday at 7 p.m. Ada is joined by fellow Class 5A school Duncan and the host school.

“We hope to see a lot of work on fundamentals with backs keeping their focus and linemen firing out flatback, keeping low and hitting hard. We’ll be able to tell a lot more about what we have after this,” he said.

He noted that Duncan, coached by former Wynnewood and Altus coach Jim Holloway, has a pair of 280-pound defensive tackles who will give his offensive line a lot of work.

“Pauls Valley has some speed. (First-year head coach Kevin Foster) has indicated he would like to see his No. 1s against our No. 2s, but the matchups have not been set yet.”

Trainer Brian Lorance called up the reinforcements for the first time as team managers Kyle ‘Skeeter’ Davis, Nikki Stepps and Cessli Jeffers helped with bumps and bruises, filmed the practice and toted water to parched players.

        

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