Three Way Braves Practice 2020

By Dency McClure

It’s been a while since I had seen the Three Way field. The last time I saw it there was still construction happening. It was nice to drive up and see a beautiful green field, big nice stands, large press box etc. Very nice, fully finished stadium.

My favorite part of the new facility is the big covered porch connected to the weight room and dressing rooms that faces the end of the field. It’s like siting on a nice front porch and enjoying the view with a breeze. Whoever designed it must be a porch sitter like I am.

I got there a bit early so I was able to enjoy the porch and watch the junior high practice for a bit. It was definitely hot at 4:00PM. The last bell for the school day rang, and Coach Sparks was rushing kids along to get to their buses. With Three Way being a country community school, I imagine most of the kids ride buses. I didn’t see very many cars there to actually pick students up. 

Coach Sparks seems to enjoy life in general and love the kids. One girl walked up and he told her she better be behaving or he’d be contacting her parents again. She stopped, looked at him and said “You are my parent!”.  From that moment on I knew this was going to be a fun place to be for a while.
Once all the high school boys made it over from their last classes and got suited out practice got underway. They started with the normal stretches and then quickly jumped into tackle practice. It looks like Three Way will have a nice number of boys to make up their team this year. There were still a few not able to be in pads yet. Once they are all ready to play, he should have a good group with plenty of backup on the sidelines. 

Coach Sparks is a very hands on instructor as well as animated. He had the boys and I chuckling off and on as he explained visually what was and wasn’t legal in tackling. Flashbacks to Karate Kid came to mind. Don’t worry no one was hurt. He didn’t actually do the illegal hits on anyone. It was nice to watch the tackle drills and see Coach Sparks energetically jump in and show the kids how to do it right.
Coach Sparks was on the field in jeans. I honestly don’t know how he managed the heat in jeans. The heat eventually let me know I needed to head back to the air conditioning. I had a nice visit at Three Way. I can’t wait to catch a game in their beautiful stadium. I might have to get there extra early with a lawn chair to enjoy that porch.

See you on the sidelines!

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