BREWER, Maine — Football is a demanding sport that combines a grueling physical component with an important mental ingredient.
It is critical on every play that all 11 players are on the same page, and they have to use their physicality and knowledge to get the desired result.
Double sessions, or two practices per day, are the building block of a football team.
Coaches use double sessions to condition their players, implement the playbook and evaluate their talent. It also is a good source of bonding.
They are especially important for a school such as John Bapst, which has players from several different communities.
“Being a private school, we don’t have a feeder program,” senior Crusader and offensive tackle-linebacker Austin Smith of Greenbush said. “This is when we learn about each other and about each other’s strengths and weaknesses. When you’re together all day, it helps you bond as a team. Double sessions are very helpful.”
“You can’t expect everyone to know the same things because they come from all different backgrounds,” John Bapst senior and two-way end Spencer Baron of Mariaville said. “So you start on page one and teach everyone the basics all the way up to [molding them] into what you want them to do.”
Bangor High School senior center and linebacker Cam Cota said double sessions are “really valuable because they set the tempo for the season. They also show you who’s been working hard over the summer.”
“Having 10 practices in five days can be pretty tough in the heat and everything, but they definitely pay off as long as you’re working hard and doing stuff right,” Bangor senior running back-defensive end Dane Johnson said.
“You go into them knowing they’re going to be tough, but it’s worth it in the end,” Bangor senior quarterback Jeff Lewis said.
Most coaches will devote one of the two sessions to offense and the other to defense. They will have an early-morning and either late-afternoon or early-evening practice. They will limit their practices if heat becomes a factor.
“Double sessions tell you a lot about a player mentally and what he is willing to endure to play for your team,” John Bapst coach Dan O’Connell said.
Bucksport coach Joel Sankey has his practices late afternoon and in the evening so his players can keep their jobs during the day.
Protecting the players
In Maine, many high school football players have two weeks of double sessions. Teams are allowed two scrimmages/exhibition games against other opponents.
That is followed by a third week of one-per-day practices and the first countable game.
Schools are back in session on the third week, and some actually start during the second week, which reduces teams to one practice.
This season, the first day of double sessions was Aug. 17. Teams were able to schedule a scrimmage on Aug. 24. Sometimes, schools schedule multiteam jamborees.
Regular-season games open next Friday.
With the limited time available to prepare a team for the opener, double sessions take on an even more critical role as coaches prepare their teams physically and mentally for the grind of a long season.
The Maine Principals’ Association has implemented a number of regulations over the years to ensure the safety of football players.
The days of dressing in full pads on the first day of double sessions have been replaced by guidelines that won’t allow players to wear full pads until the Friday of that first week.
Players are in helmets and cleats for the first two days and uppers — helmets, shoulder pads and cleats — on the third and fourth days. They are allowed 2¼ hours per practice session on the first two days and 2½ on the second two days.
On Friday, they can don full pads and can practice for 2¾ hours per session.
Players must have a three-hour recovery period between sessions, and teams can’t practice during the hottest time of the day, between 11:30 a.m. through 3 p.m.
“Our football committee has become more and more aware of making sure we keep our student-athletes safe,” MPA executive director Dick Durost said.
“In this day and age, coaches are conscious of the heat and make sure there is sufficient rest and recovery time. Even if these guidelines weren’t in place, they would take precautions for the well-being of their athletes,” said MPA assistant executive director Mike Burnham, the MPA’s liaison to the football committee.
The MPA also has instituted a rule this season that limits teams to no more than 30 minutes of full contact during a practice and no more than three per week.
“There was very little opposition to that. Most coaches already limit contact,” Burnham said.
Coaches also must complete a course that requires them to watch “Concussions in Sport” and “A Guide to Heat Illness” videos.
Fourteen-year Maine Central Institute of Pittsfield coach Tom Bertrand allows his players to get water “whenever they need it,” and 31-year Winslow coach Mike Siviski has his players bring their own water buckets to practice.
Coaches want more practice time
High school football coaches are appreciative of the MPA’s focus and concern for the health and welfare of the players.
But not all of them feel two weeks gives them enough time to prepare their teams properly, and injuries can be more prevalent.
The MPA has had a hands-off period for several years, meaning coaches can’t be involved with their teams for a certain period. For high school coaches, it is from Aug. 3-16.
Burnham pointed out that before the hands-off period, coaches used to hold football camps the weeks before the double sessions with full pads.
“They used to allow us to have three weeks instead of two,” Sankey, who has been the head coach at Bucksport High for 22 years and has been involved in coaching for more than 40 years, said. “It’s tough to try to cram everything into two weeks. The first week is nothing but conditioning. Kids would be in better shape, and it would cut down on injuries if we had three weeks.
“There are a lot of things [implemented by the MPA] that are good. I just wish we had more time for conditioning,” Sankey added.
“[The football season] is a marathon, not a sprint,” first-year Bangor coach Al Mosca said.
“I’m sure we would be able to get more done with an extra week, but it’s not realistic [because of school schedules]. Two weeks have always been the standard, so I’ve always planned that way,” O’Connell said.
“I used to like the three weeks. We had a checklist of things we needed to do, and we were hardly able to get them done in three weeks. It’s impossible in two,” Siviski said.
“But it’s the same for everybody. We’re just asking our kids to get prepared more quickly,” said Siviski, who added that his players aren’t in football shape until the third game of the season.
Other coaches agreed and Brewer coach Nick Arthers said one of the positive aspects of not having a practice in full pads until the first Friday is that it makes his players “really itching to get after it.”
“We wind up with more positive and upbeat practices,” he continued. “It also means practices don’t take a big toll on their bodies early in the week.”
Coaches limit full contact because they feel they can’t afford to have injuries.
“We practice tackling a lot more on the [tackling] sleds,” Bertrand said.
No restrictions
Other fall sports, such as soccer and field hockey, also have double sessions, but there are no restrictions placed on them.
Double sessions can be equally productive for the other fall sports.
“They’re pretty valuable when you’re trying to make cuts and learn your players. It certainly gives you more time to assess and evaluate things in a competitive atmosphere,” Bangor High School girls soccer coach Joe Johnson said.
But Maine Hall of Fame coach Paula Doughty of Skowhegan High School considers double sessions a “waste of time and effort.”
“They used to have them with another coach when I took time off to have my children, and the girls hated them,” Doughty said. “You’ve got to stretch all over again and get taped again. So we practice from 7 to 11 in the morning before cutting back, and that gives the girls a chance to go to the beach, spend time with their families or do whatever they want to do.”