Cougars change practice, adapt to rule change

With 30-plus years in the high school coaching profession, Cougars head football coach Bobby Carroll knows about rule changes.

Such has been the case in the early stages of preseason practice, during which Carroll has adapted to a new rule mandated by the South Carolina High School League.

Junior varsity players can only play four quarters a week, compared to eight quarters in previous years.

“We don’t have all of those JV players we can depend on to be backups because of the rule,” Carroll said. “So we’ve really changed our practice around.”

Carroll has taken measures to lessen the effect.

“We’re having to be careful not to get people hurt,” he said. “We don’t want to beat ourselves. We want to beat the team we’re playing.”

Carroll has changed daily preparations to NFL-style practices.

“We throw it up a lot and stay high on each other,” he said. “You stay off each others knees, and you don’t bang your shoulders up.

“Of course, there’s the whole deal with concussions. We don’t want to lose anybody for four or five games because we got a concussion doing something stupid at practice.”

Carroll said the new team practices will increase players’ longevity.

“We looked back and wondered how we made the state championship game last year,” he said. “We reflected on the way we practiced. It kept us healthy through the year.

“That’s really what you’ve got to learn to do, because depth is an issue now.”

Carroll said he was pleased with the first official day of practice July 31 at the YCHS stadium.

“It was kind of surprising how well the players picked it up and how crisp everything went,” he said. “We’re really focusing on making sure they’re in good shape, and how they retained 7-on-7 sessions and spring practice.”

Carroll said the way the football program is designed, little or no thought is given to a rebuilding year.

“Hopefully, those guys in the ninth-grade will become good JV players and the JV players will become good 11th-graders,” he said. “Some of them might be backups or starters.

“You just hope it’s progressive when you come up.”

While there are options at quarterback, Rock Hill senior transfer Cameron McKinney has emerged as the top signal-caller.

“Cameron’s a great kid, one of the hardest workers we’ve had in the weight room,” Carroll said. “He’s one of the hardest workers we have out there, the first to come and the last to leave.”

Carroll said the team has suffered losses to graduation last year, including North All-Star quarterback Deshaw Andrews, who spearheaded a bold playoff run that reached the state title game.

“Deshaw just had a big year,” Carroll said. “He only threw three interceptions in the regular season, which is phenomenal.

“That’s hard to replace.”

The Cougars will make the trek to Sumter on Aug. 21 to open the 2015 football season against the Gamecocks, a perennial Big 16 powerhouse. Kickoff is at 7:30 p.m.

This story was originally published August 4, 2015 at 2:50 PM with the headline "Cougars change practice, adapt to rule change."