BLOG 1: START OF SPRING PRACTICE PUSHED BACK BY ONE

By Sandy Gholston

Big Rapids - - With just 15 scheduled practice dates this spring, Ferris State head football coach Jeff Pierce is determined to make the most of time he and his coaching staff have with the players on the field.

With weather conditions less than ideal (cold, wet and snowy), early Tuesday on into the afternoon, the coaches chose to hold off the start of spring drills until Thursday. The coaches want to make the most of a limited number of practice sessions and, with no true indoor facility to conduct a practice in, the team’s options are limited. After a winter of team, position, and player evaluations, the coaching staff wants to have an opportunity to best see what its young, up-and-coming players in the program can due – without any weather limitations.

“We want to be able to use our practices as best we can and we definitely don’t want to be in a position where we’re not getting the most out of (practices),” said Pierce, who indicated that the team plans to continue with its normal practice schedule beginning Thursday afternoon. “We are planning on rescheduling that (missed Tuesday) practice for a little later in the spring. … We’ll just have to see where we can fit it in.”

Also, according to Pierce, don’t expect to see the Bulldogs on the natural grass practice fields any time soon, however. Snow and rain – as part of what has been a particularly brutal Michigan winter – have joined forces to soak the team’s usual South Campus practice field. It wouldn’t take many practices to turn that grass into a muddy mess. Thus, Ferris plans to practice on the Top Taggart Field artificial surface likely for the first couple of weeks this spring – if not longer – in preparation for the school’s 100th season of varsity football this fall.

“Fortunately, we have an artificial surface because we would definitely be in some big trouble if we were trying to practice as much as we need to practice having no other option than just to be on our grass practice field,” said Pierce, who had two no-pad practices scheduled for Tuesday (April 1) and Thursday prior to Friday’s planned pads practice. “With the weather being what it has been, we’re looking at maybe a couple of weeks, at best, before we could realistically be able to get out on the grass to play.”

If you have any questions, ideas or comments feel free to contact Sandy Gholston at sgholston2@netzero.com