About 90 players take the field for the first full squad on-field practice of Salem CC’s inaugural football season; Accorsi: first day “exceeded my expectations”
By Al Muskewitz
Riverview Sports News
CARNEYS POINT – The last time we saw the Salem CC football team on this practice field there were eight players running drills and four coaches making sure they were doing them right. That’s a nice ratio for some individual workouts, but it’s not what you really want to conduct a traditional full-blown football practice.
Fast forward to a sweltering Thursday afternoon four months later and there were players and coaches in every corner of the facility where not even the bell of a passing ice cream truck making the rounds could challenge their focus. The Mighty Oaks were going through their first on-the-field practice in program history with a full complement of coaches and players and it was all a football practice was supposed to be.
“It was awesome,” head coach Jay Accorsi said. “It was kind of what I envisioned when I reached out to Dr. (Mike) Gorman about this. It’s what I thought it would be. It’s pretty cool.”
More than 90 players took part in the 2-hour, 15-minute practice conducted in 90-degree heat.
Practice was schedule for 3:00, but the players started arriving well before that. The early arrivals gathered under the shade on the perimeter of the Twins Field. And then, much of Accorsi’s delight, even before the last busload of players arrived those already on site moved out onto the field and began drills before the practice was even supposed to start.
“We’ve just got to be careful; we can’t burn them out too fast,” Accorsi said. “We’ve got to slow it down a little bit because they were so excited. But I think that’s the fun part. Players who are really excited to be here, who want to be here, are cherishing this opportunity. That’s why I really wanted to do something like this, to provide an opportunity for those who don’t have it. I think all the players here, in their each special story, fit that mold.”
Defensive back Ben Secouler (Cherry Hill West) and running back Brian Pritchett (Bridgeton) were among those intrepid eight who went through spring practice. It was definitely different.
“Multiplied by more than 10 this time,” Secouler said. “It’s like surreal, honestly. When we were here in the spring, it kind of felt hard to believe or even like trust (it was going to happen). I was trying to get them to buy in then for this opportunity then and, look, it’s here, and that was how many months ago and there was nothing. Honestly, it’s crazy, but it’s all coming together.”
“It felt fun, it felt good, it felt intense,” Pritchett said. “It’s felt good to be around some good vibes, to be around football again. It felt good.”
Charlie Shute, a decorated freshman linebacker from Delaware, was taking it in for the first time. The heat, the drills, none of it fazed him. Heading back to his position group from one of the water breaks, he told teammates he had been waiting for this opportunity a long time.
“I really didn’t get a lot of recruiting opportunities in high school (despite being a two-time first-team all-stater) so this is a perfect opportunity, a perfect chance, for me to really show my ability, show my leadership,” he said. “Obviously we’re here and then we’re going to try to go somewhere else after this. That was the memo when we first got here, so I just wanted to come here, fresh start, become a leader. Really, I’ve been waiting for this my whole life. This is exactly where I wanted to be, around the people I want to be around.”
Nobody won a position on this day, but Accorsi said the Mighty Oaks may have come closer to identifying their punter and kicker. There’s still a lot of work to be done – and a lot of players to evaluate – before the Aug. 21 scrimmage at Montclair and definitely the Aug. 29 inaugural game against Hudson Valley at Pennsville High School, but he found a lot to like on the first day of practice.
Just from watching film and seeing the players during three days of meetings Accorsi had a sense his first team would have the right stuff to be competitive right out of the gate, but seeing them move around on the field for the first time convinced him even more.
“I think we’re going to be a very quick team, I think we’re going to be a very athletic team,” the former Rowan head coach said. “I think up front on the offensive line we’ve got some good size; there’s some inexperience there. On the back end defensively in the secondary and at the wide receiver spot we’re going to have some really good skill players. That’s kind of different for me. At the Division III level that’s kind of the areas that maybe you don’t. I knew here It was; I think we’re very athletic. In the team period, I was really impressed how the running backs ran, how the linebackers ran.
“It’s a long way to go. It’s only Day One. You’ve got to be cautiously optimistic and careful. It exceeded my expectations for the first day, it did; overall, the whole thing did exceed my expectations. The excitement for them to be here and how quickly they want to do things was great, but we had to temper down because we had to make sure they could through a whole practice.”
Of course, it’s only the beginning. The Mighty Oaks will continue to work out in guardian helmets and shorts the next two days. They’ll go in uppers for three days starting Sunday, then go in full pads for the first time Aug. 13. Then it’ll get interesting.
“I think it’s going to be even better,” Shute said. “I think the intensity is going to rise, the competitive level is going to rise. Everybody is going to be loud, everybody’s going to be aggressive, everybody’s going to be competitive, but at the end of the day we’re a team, so we’re going to do what’s best for the team. But it’s going to be absolutely awesome out here, so explosive. It’s going to be double the energy we had today.”
