JOHNSTON – While many high school football coaches across the state openly loathe the initial days of fall practice, during which players are not allowed to wear pads, Strom Thurmond’s Lee Sawyer sees things a little differently.

“I felt like we’re getting better,” he said during Saturday’s afternoon run. “There are a lot of guys out here that you can already see the improvement in them (from spring) and with the things they’ve been doing over the summer. We know we can’t wear pads, but we just look to get better and improve every day. We can’t hit yet, but we can get better.”

Sawyer said by the completion of practice on Friday he hoped to have put in the team’s entire special teams package before the team scrimmages at Laurens this weekend.

“They pick it up and we move on to something else,” he added. “We’d like to have all of that ready and in place before we scrimmage (on Saturday).”  
The Rebels (12-1 in 2008) are the defending champions in Region 3-AA after dropping down from Class AAA ball. Sawyer said he likes the matching of classes he’s seen in the 2009 team, a unit not overloaded in any one class.

“This crowd is a good mix,” he said. “We’re not overly heavy in any one class, which is good. We have a good freshman class and some of them may play and we have some sophomores who will play. And we have our juniors and a good class of seniors.”

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