EAST MANATEE — Thursday’s practice ended as almost all football practices do, dozens of players in black-and-white practice jerseys on one knee in a tight huddle, arms resting on silver helmets, a lone figure standing in the middle of the pack, speaking slowly and clearly.
And as Braden River coach Ed Volz reached the end of each point about keeping chinstraps buckled and showing up for weight room assignments and maintaining composure, he punctuated each thought with a simple question for his players: “Understand?”
Each time, the chorus that came back was as coordinated and crisp as any play that had been executed over the previous two hours in the wilting heat: “Yes sir!”
Listening to the Pirates speak with one voice told you the players were disciplined, it told you they respected their coach and, most of all, it told you they were focused.
It would be difficult to find a more focused group than the Pirates this spring, and that’s partly by design, partly by necessity and completely impressive — because few football teams have had a better excuse to be unfocused.
It was only one day before spring practice began that the 4-year-old program — which has played a full varsity schedule for only two years — learned that the only coach it ever had, Josh Hunter, had resigned.
It already was a program in grieving. On March 21, Hunter was driving in a vehicle crash that killed assistant coach Doug Garrity. Hunter had built the Pirates’ program from scratch, all the way to last season’s surprising breakthrough, an 8-4 record (7-3 in the regular season) and upset of Palmetto in the first round of the Class 3A-Region 3 playoffs.
Without Garrity, Hunter told athletic director Bob Bowling that he had lost his motivation. For players already stunned by the loss of their offensive line coach, it was another blow.
For Volz, an offensive coordinator entering his second season with the program, it was a sudden, unexpected assignment to take over as interim head coach.
Volz doesn’t even know if he’ll be around this fall — he says he hasn’t discussed having the interim dropped from his title with either Bowling or principal Jim Pauley — but he knows Hunter built a program with a solid foundation, and that’s the key to maintaining composure this spring.
“A lot of that has to do with Josh Hunter,” Volz said. “He did a great job here. He created a program full of smart, tough, disciplined kids. You get smart, tough, disciplined kids, you can win a lot of games.”
In other words, why change the formula? Since day one, the Pirates have excelled by establishing a running game. Last season Jujuan Bell was the area’s leading rusher, and Braden River won by wearing down opponents methodically.
“That’s how we beat Palmetto last year,” senior-to-be quarterback Stephen Fischer said. “We’re not the most athletic team, but we run really well and we’re well-conditioned. We know we’re going to be able to keep giving it all we’ve got late in the fourth quarter.”
Thursday was Fischer’s first practice. A third baseman on Braden River’s district-winning baseball team, he was busy with his other sport. He was curious what to expect from his first practice with Volz as head coach, but he wasn’t surprised not much had changed.
“I had a chance to sit down with Coach Volz and get to know him during the offseason, and I like his offense and the way he’s teaching it,” Fischer said. As for his old coach, Fischer said “we love him and we miss him. We know he wants to come out here every day.”
Volz admits to missing Hunter and Garrity. Although they worked together for only a year, “Doug was one of those instant relationship guys. He worked tremendously hard, he had high energy and he was fun.”
Keeping the energy up and keeping things fun has been Volz’s number one goal this spring, and so far he’s succeeding. The Pirates are loose and happy in practice, congratulating each other over big hits and sprinting out the most mundane drills.
“This football program is a family,” Volz said. “There is a time when we came together and we mourned. Now we come together every day to grow and get better as a team. That’s the beauty of football. It requires your 100 percent attention.
“It is therapeutic to be out here.”
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