Published: April 01, 2009 11:52 am      

Cardinals begin spring workouts

Smiley: Practices give coaching staff chance to work on fundamentals, identify playmakers

It’s a sunny and cool Monday afternoon, and Brad Smiley looks to be having fun.

He’s smiling, joking around with players. Heck, he even grabbed a blocking pad and jumped into a series of offensive plays at one point.

As spring football workouts began at Trinity Valley Community College Monday, it marked the beginning of happy days for the Cardinals.

A team with back-to-back two-win seasons posted a 6-4 mark last year — good enough for a spot in the Southwest Junior College Football Conference playoffs.

Those results have players and coaches at TVCC hungry for more, and the Cardinals feel like they’ve got the tools to meet their own expectations. Smiley, heading into his third season as head coach, has 13 returning letterman — nine on offense and five on defense.

Spring workouts, he said, give coaches a chance to hammer home the basics and identify the players who will be able to turn in valuable performances on the field next season.

“Spring ball is all about fundamentals and techniques,” Smiley said. “It also gives an opportunity for our new guys to show what they can do.”

The first day of practice was plenty busy, with the team separated into groups depending on their offensive or defensive specialty. During various drills, players hooted and hollered and rooted each other on as some made a handful of spectacular plays.

Smiley gave the first workout “mixed review.”

“We have so many returning guys from last season, we should have a whole bunch of carryover — and today there was,” Smiley said.