Last year, because of the COVID-19 pandemic, there was no spring football practice and numerous restrictions on summer workouts, including no 7-on-7 games.
This year, things basically got back to normal during the the spring and the summer is looking the same way with most restrictions lifted.
Rain did put a damper on parts of spring practice, but the head coaches of the six parish teams were generally pleased with how things went.
“That’s been one thing that’s great, to get back to normal workouts and just build a team,” Airline head coach Bo Meeks said. “The team-building aspect was pretty much cut out of it last year. So being able to get back to that has been great.”
Here is a wrapup of spring practice and a look ahead to to summer workouts. The return of the NWLA 7-on-7 Charity Invitational tournament hosted by Benton at Freedom Fields on June 18 and 19 is a highlight.
Each team’s record last season is in parentheses.
Airline (3-4)
The Vikings got in eight days of practice concluding with a scrimmage against North DeSoto.
“I thought the spring went really well,” Meeks said. “We were able to get eight practice days and the scrimmage in with all the rain. So feel pretty good about that.
“But we’ve got a lot of new guys we’re replacing, particularly offensively. Thought we really grew during the offseason and practice, saw a lot of guys improve. Hopefully we’ve got some questions answered on both sides. But I thought it was really productive.”
Meeks said the scrimmage got off to a bit of a tough start but the Vikings improved as it went on.
“They got after us a little bit early and as the scrimmage went on we got better which I expected with the lack of experience,” he said. “I feel like we have good, young, talented guys, just don’t have much experience so it’s going to be about just growing up as fast as we can. I thought the spring was good for that.”
With the…