Covington Owls Practice 2019

I came into Covington through a little downtown area and then stopped at the CEFCO before heading on out to the stadium. The Stadium in Covington is out on the edge of town away from the school. It’s a really nice complex with baseball fields and more. I parked in front of a painted owl as the boys were crossing the road to a practice area. I didn’t make it too far before Coach Steele saw me as he was driving by. He offered me a ride down to the practice area, and I gladly accepted. 
 
We had a nice visit about his team and the Covington kids as a whole. I have such an appreciation for small town coaches because they have a love for their team and the town kids in general. So many of them go far beyond just coaching. They take time for the kids off the field and take on a huge mentor role assisting kids in any way that they need. The term “father figure” just isn’t enough to describe what so many 1A coaches do everyday for their communities. Coach Steele is one of the coaches that truly takes to heart the depth of the job for which he has been called. 
 
Covington has almost 30 kids out for football this year. They will be playing a full JV schedule. That’s the most kids I’ve seen on a field this year. It was neat to see how organized they ran practice with so many kids. They had three groups and each group would run the plays they called one right after the other. Coach Taylor would call out a play and then group one would run it immediately followed by group two and then group three. This allowed for the coaches to watch each group and give feedback. Yet it kept things moving and all the kids rotating in their groups.
 
Amazingly there was some cloud cover and a good gust of wind from time to time. I lost my hat at one point. So thankful for the wind I didn’t mind a bit. Nicest weather I’ve had for an afternoon practice so far. It made it easy to just watch for a while. Couldn’t stay too long though I needed to get to Morgan to visit their practice.
 
I left via the fence opening by the dug out that Coach Steele had pointed out as a shortcut back to my car. I drove back into town and stopped at the CEFCO. It’s just too nice a place to pass up when you are traveling and you have no idea when you will see anything like it again. While shopping around for some kind of meal, a gentleman with a little boy spied me in my Texas 1A Fan shirt and asked if I had been to the field yet. I told him I had just gotten back. He told me they were fixing to have the younger kids football practice if I wanted to come. I thanked him for the invitation but explained I was fixing to head to Morgan. FYI... I love it when people realize who I am and talk to me. That’s what it's all about! Making community connections and getting to know people. I grew up in a six-man town and chose to live in a one for that very reason.
 
See you on the sidelines!
Dency