By By Tim Cottrell
Fall practice at Escambia Academy got off to a bit of an inauspicious start Thursday night in Canoe, as thunderstorms circled the area and delayed practice for 30 minutes.
"We started out at 4:30 working out," said Cougar head coach Heath Gibson. "At 5:30 we went live for about 30 minutes before lightning delayed us for about 30 minutes. We came back and went at it until 9."
The Cougars also came to practice at 7 a.m. Friday morning prior to picture day.
Despite the delays and his players only being in shorts and helmets, Gibson felt the team had made some progress.
"There's not a lot you can do in shorts," he said. "You just want them to hustle as much as they can and learn where to line up. We went through a lot of special teams."
The Cougars lost 12 senior starters from a roster that only included 25 players last season. Depth and who would fill up those spots have been a big question mark for the Cougars throughout the off-season. With the season opener against Faith Academy now less than four weeks away, Gibson said he felt a few pieces of the puzzle were coming together.
"I learned we're in pretty good shape," he said. "It's better than any time in the three years I've been here. We went through conditioning at the end and everyone was still in good shape. That's a good sign. A lot of the questions we need to answer we can't solve until we can go full speed. When we get in full pads we'll find out a lot. Once we get into full contact we'll see who can play."