Published: May 08, 2008 11:08 pm            

Just a little rain: Crane, team hit field

The figurative whirlwind that was David Crane’s first month as Southeast’s football coach turned into a very real rainshower on Thursday afternoon.

But for Crane and the Raiders, it was going to take more than a steady drizzle to put a damper on their first day of spring practice — their most visible and involved activity as a team since he took over the program on April 8.

“I told the guys afterwards we’ve got a long way to go as far as execution’s concerned, but we knew that would be the case,” said the 32-year-old Crane, who is leading a varsity football program for the first time.

“But I was pleased with their effort — they got after it pretty good — and I was pleased with their enthusiasm, especially toward the end. It started picking up some and guys started encouraging each other a little bit more.”

Since the announcement of his hiring, Crane has been busy with football-related matters — reviewing past game tapes, setting up his coaching staff, checking out equipment — but on Thursday he was finally able to get down to strictly football.

However, he kept it simple for his players, who worked about an hour and 40 minutes, almost all of it under a rainy sky.

“These first two days we’re doing nothing but fundamentals,” said Crane, who inherits a program that went 1-8 last season. “We’re not worried about plays, we’re not putting in schemes, we’re just coaching fundamentals right now — stances, starts, alignment, all your basic fundamentals of blocking and tackling.”

Crane will add more to the practices over the next two weeks, but a major focus early on for the coach will be establishing relationships with his players. On past teams he’s been involved with, Crane said, more success has been owed to that type of work than any training method or scheme.

For a program whose seniors will be working under their third head coach — Crane follows Chip Kell (2001-05) and Jon Lovingood (2006-07) — that will clearly be important. Offensive lineman Jimmy Nussbaumer, a rising senior, said that while it’s not easy to trust another new man in charge, Crane has already overcome such barriers by making it clear he cares about the players and the program.

“Coach Crane has got a lot of good ideas and he just sounds like a really good guy,” Nussbaumer said. “It’s hard not to get on the boat and support him with all the great ideas he has, and he’s wholeheartedly wanting to change this thing around.”

Both Nussbaumer and fellow lineman Tyler Crow, also a rising senior, said it was good to return to the football field, where the Raiders have 10 days to begin the earliest steps of installing a spread offense Crane has been teaching for much of his coaching career that represents a change in direction from last year’s I-formation base.

“It went pretty well,” Crow said. “I was real excited, just the fact that we have all this new stuff, high speed and all that. We’re going to have to get used to the new tempo, but I think it’s going to work out really good.”

Crane said he has no plans to rush the installation of his system, and that will likely be the case even when the team goes back to work for summer practice sessions the first week of June and into the fall.

“Our main goals are to increase our numbers and teach our guys what the expectations are of them are as far as work ethic,” Crane said. “I’m not as concerned about plays and schemes right now as much as kids — loving on them and getting them out there and making it fun for them, because you’ve got to have the kids in your corner. If you do that, the football stuff will fall in line for you.”

On Wednesday night, Crane referred to the busy days that have filled his tenure so far as “a whirlwind, but very rewarding.”

He has been spending his mornings teaching special education at Beaverdale Elementary, his afternoons on football preparation and getting to know his way around Southeast and his evenings in staff meetings and on the computer. Additionally, he’s nearing the end of his hunt for a home in the area and awaiting the arrival of his wife and children from South Carolina, where he served as an assistant last year on the staff at Presybterian College.

“It’s been real good,” Crane said of the past month. “I’ve had a chance to meet a lot of different people and a lot of supportive people and I’m looking forward to meeting some more.”

The Raiders will close their spring session with a scrimmage at 7 p.m. on May 23.

        

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