Hotel and a shower to freshen up before I headed back, took a closer look at the little building next door - Fraternal Order of Eagles, mums everywhere should give thanks, twas the group who lobbied for the acknowledgement of mothers and therefore Mother's Day.
Back to the college and upstairs meeting room for the player's meeting. Few little chats to some of the blokes, lot of fist pumps from the guys coming in.
Like the movies had the music going, bit of dancing and a whole lot of group singing until the boss man came in to address the group
10 minute or so meeting, then players and coaches broke off into positional meetings. I sat in on the wide receivers meeting, where the coach proceeded to talk at the players for a little over an hour. No way they could take half of what was said in.
At 4ish, players are on the track, with training officially starting at around 4.45, with 18 sessions of 5 - 8 minutes to come. Prior to that though 4 pre-training sessions, not counted in the training time, but they were training. I was amazed at the schedule these guys follow, and the lack of recovery time, 5 training days, 5 uni days, 1 playing day, 1 rest day plus getting uni assignments done as well as the occasional community service.
Again like the movies, huge speakers blaring the music out as they went about the pre-training training
The big boys, training for 2 plus hours and don't touch a ball once
Far end, Allison Field sign, he's the money man, head of Centennial Bank
The young fella during pre-training. His sessions are over by about session 6 of 18, so he and the other special teams players amuse themselves for the last hour or so. Worked for him though, he practices his throwing, able to get away a fake punt in the preceding seasons bowl game. During the coaches special team's meeting in the morning, they were formulating 2 more fake punt plays for him to be able to go with during a game.
Random training shots, Johnny Allison Tower in the background. Bit of a theme going.
By this stage the defense and the scouts (non playing squad members who act as the opposition) had moved to the indoor field
And off course we finish training with a prayer
It was about a quarter to 7 by this stage, coaches were going back to the offices for more meeting and to analyse film of training. Not for me, sleep deprivation had caught up and I was out of there.
Ordinary burger at a 5 guys, and finally managed a decent nights sleep.