After attending many practices and camps, Putnam County football recently ended its summer workout schedule and is now participating in the Georgia High School Association (GHSA)-mandated acclimation week.
Per the official GHSA website (ghsa. net), “football practices may begin five consecutive weekdays before Aug. 1st.”
During acclimation week, practices will last no longer than two hours. Also, players are allowed to practice only in shells – helmets, mouthpieces, shorts and shoes – during these five days.
On Aug. 1, high school football teams in Georgia may finally be in full pads and also practice twice in a “single calendar day,” the GHSA website states. These practices are also known as “two-a-days.”
There are several other GHSA rules in place for its football acclimation week, including:
- A student must have participated in five conditioning practices wearing shorts and a helmet before being allowed to practice in full pads;
- If multiple workouts are held in a single day:
- No single session may last longer than three hours;
- The total amount of time in the two practices shall not exceed five hours;
- There must be at least a three-hour time of rest between sessions, and; • There may not be consecutive days of two-a-day practices.
All double-session days must be followed by a single-session day or a day off.
“These procedures are derived from recommendations created by the Inter-Association Task Force for Preseason Secondary School Athletics Participants in the research paper ‘Preseason Heat-Acclimatization Guidelines for Secondary School Athletics,” according to the GHSA website.
Putnam County first-year head coach Joel Harvin will use these five days – like many other coaches in Georgia – to get his players adjusted to the hot weather, repeatedly in the high 90s lately.
Harvin said he’s seen “a lot of progress” from his team over the course of the last few months.
“I would say slowly, but we’ve progressed and we’re getting a majority of our playbook in,” the coach said earlier this month. “We don’t have everything in, but defensively, we’re evolving a little bit and getting our kids in the right position.
We have moved a couple of kids around on defense. “Offensively, we’ve been creating some competition at every position, so that is what this summer has really been about. It’s trying to create competition and see who helps us out at what spots.”
The War Eagles have been working on installing Harvin’s offense and defense during their practices this summer. They’ve also participated in multiple 7-on-7 and padded camps this year.
“Everything is kind of still new to [the players]. This is their first summer under me,” Harvin added. “You know, trying to build a standard and meet those expectations. It’s really been fun. We’ve also tried to break up the monotony of the summer of just lifting, working out, and running by doing these padded and 7-on-7 camps. They give us an idea of where we’re at and what we need to work on. There’s been a lot of bright spots at the 7-on-7s and padded camps, too.”
Harvin’s squad will use this time to do drills and get used to the sweltering summer heat, and also to have some fun before the start of fall camp.
Putnam County will begin regular practices wearing full pads next week when the War Eagles will also begin preparing for the 2023 season.
They will scrimmage Greene County in Eatonton on Aug. 11, at Al Reaves Field, with their season opener scheduled for 7:30 p.m. on Aug. 25, in Milledgeville versus Baldwin High School.