By Bob Sutton
Special to The Alamance News
It’s a new era for Eastern Alamance football, and so the Eagles wasted no time in getting started on the opening day of official practices for the fall season.
The first practice began at 6:00 a.m. Wednesday.
“Football, you got to do what you got to do to get in that work,” said rising senior Tyrek Samuel, who has been a standout running back the past two years.
First-year coach Mitch Mitchener has succeeded John Kirby, who was in charge for 32-plus seasons before announcing his retirement in the winter.
Teams have held workouts throughout the summer, but this takes it to a new level in advance of August 23 openers.
“It’s sort of business as usual, but we added some more stuff,” Mitchener said. “Trying to hammer home what we learned over the summer.”
For Eastern’s largely new coaching staff, the past few months have been valuable as they connect with the players and learn about personnel.
The Eagles, who went 8-3 last year, have slightly more than 80 players signed up, and Mitchener said that’s an encouraging number. It’s down slightly from recent Eastern teams, but the school’s enrollment dipped with the addition of Southeast Alamance.
“The good thing is we had about three-fourths of (these players) over the summer,” Mitchener said.
A new addition to Eastern’s coaching staff is Jack McGill, an ex-Williams lineman who had been a student assistant at Appalachian State. He’s the son of former Williams coach Jim McGill.
For preseason practices, there’s variety in terms of practice times for teams prior to the start of classes. Some teams hold morning workouts, while others have slated evening sessions.
