Audition Time For Freshmen (Daily News-Record)

Bridgewater College’s football staff got its first look at its rookies Monday.

Daily News-Record - By Jeremy Cothran

BRIDGEWATER — Every year in August, Mike Clark welcomes a bumper crop of eager freshmen to the auxiliary practice field at Bridgewater College, and every year it becomes the same dog-and-pony show for the program’s football coaching staff.

It’s the Eagles’ version of speed dating: show me quickly what you can do and why we should be interested.

On Monday, the second day of practice, the BC coaches ran 64 freshmen through a variety of drills and scrimmages, each designed to identify talent and potential as early as possible so the coaches can begin integrating those players into the regular practice sessions. It’s not quite an NFL combine atmosphere, but for a group of wide-eyed novices, it can be quite a petrifying experience.

"We’ve got to identify who, athletically, is ready to play college ball," Clark said after practice. "What you’ll find is that some kids just are not ready, physically. You’ve got to identify who can be a fill-in with the regulars."

Clark worked with the quarterbacks and receivers Monday, pantomiming everything from how to drop back properly to when to release the ball on a receiver’s break. With the short preparation period the NCAA allows Division III schools – Clark is granted a maximum of 25 practices – it’s a race against the clock to Sept. 2, when BC opens at McDaniel, to get players acclimated to college football.

"For better or worse," Clark said, "the installation is based on what the top kids can do. We know that’s a fact. We have the shortest preparation period. It moves very quickly. You owe it to the kids who’ve been here two, three years to make sure everybody’s ready for Saturday."

One freshman coaches are high on is former Turner Ashby High School star Seth Little, who is practicing as a cornerback. Little – who quarterbacked the Knights to a 27-13 victory over Richlands in the Division 3 championship game last fall, along with making a key interception – looked comfortable in the 7-on-7 and 11-on-11 drills, which he credited to a summer working out on campus and spending time with the team’s upperclassmen.

"It’s a totally different ballgame," Little said as he walked out of Nininger Hall. "It’s a lot faster, guys are much bigger and they don’t really care about what you did in high school. I’m just trying to go as hard as I can and soak it all in."

Little’s aspirations are to make the traveling roster and help out on special teams, an ideal objective for freshmen, according to BC defensive coordinator Grant Higgison.

"He’s very mature," Higgison said. "Just the kind of kid that sticks out as being mature. A legitimate goal for freshmen at any level is to make a special-teams roster and get used to the speed of the game. The key is to get out there and compete. A lot of our good freshmen start out that way."

Little loves that he doesn’t have to spend time with both offense and defense, which he said would be almost impossible at this level. Just trying to digest the defensive schemes in his playbook is tough enough.

"It’s all the new terminology that is tough," Little said, "and all of the coverages. Plus with the caliber of athletes that I’m going up against, I couldn’t even think of going both ways. It’s kind of nice to just be able to focus on one thing, one position."

And for the players not quite physically ready to contribute, coaches know that it’s also a mission to develop them, as well, even if results don’t come to fruition as quickly.

Defensive line coach Stephon Healey said the hardest thing for freshmen to grasp is the speed of practice.

"Going from what we do in meetings to the practice field," Healey said. "That’s tough to do. Plus we want to make it sound like hell for them. That way, it lessons the sharpness on the edge of the sword."

Healey added that because there are no athletic scholarships given in Division III, technically each player is a paying customer.

"They are your future," Healey said. "So you’ve got to make them feel loved. In Division I, it’s all business. In D3, they are paying customers of the school, so we’ve got to make them better."

Clark splits the sessions into two groups – the BC regulars worked out Monday morning – so coaches would be able to devote their full attention to the freshmen. Still, he added, it can be a tiring experience.

"Every coach here has multiple hats," Clark, who is entering his 12th season, said. "When the NCAA came down with this acclimation program, meaning we can’t have two-a-days back-to-back, it’s a good thing I have a young coaching staff. Because, I’m telling you, this kind of schedule can wear out a middle-aged man."

All together, the Eagles had 142 players at practice Monday.