Sims seeks to trim Greyhounds' roster to 55 players before season gets started

Scott Nuzum/Herald-Tribune Fort Scott Community College redshirt football players work out during a late practice Friday at the FSCC practice field. The redshirts work out on their own for an hour and a half each day after the players fighting for spots on the 55-man roster for the regular season conclude their own lengthy session.

FORT SCOTT, Kan. -- Fort Scott Community College's football team has finished a full week of practice under first-year head coach Jeff Sims and it appears that he's quite pleased with the men he has on his squad.

"We have 85 guys on scholarship and, walk-on-wise, we have about another 20 guys here," Sims said Friday afternoon during a practice on the FSCC practice field. "I really feel like these are good kids. They were all here this summer. They worked hard and we got to this group. I think they're fired up about being here."

Practice began Tuesday and is in accordance to NCAA and NJCAA rules. Friday was the first day of two-a-days that can take place only every other day. A single practice is allowed on the other days. A maximum of about 24 practices can be held before the season opener on August 25 against Navarro (Texas) at Fort Scott's Frary Field.

Sims said that he and his coaching staff are working under a different approach. The top players who are in the hunt for the 55 roster spots allowed under Jayhawk Conference rules during the regular season are working out for an hour-and-a-half each time. The players who will redshirt are working an hour-and-a-half afterwards in their own group.

Sims said this schedule, although it doubles the coaches workload in terms of number of practices they oversee, benefits each group.

"We want them to play hard and fast," Sims said. "We feel like that we want players who want to play every play the entire game and that's where we're going to be successful. To do that, what we've done is split our practice schedules into two groups. It gives our coaches a chance to give more individual attention to the players and also gives the players the knowledge that practice isn't three hours long; it's an hour-and-a-half. And they can come out here and work really hard and get it done and know that it's fun. They can stay focused for that whole amount of time."

In the past, FSCC has held some sort of scrimmage whether it's been with a small four-year school, another junior college or in intra-squad affair. But Sims says there won't be any sort of a formal scrimmage this season.

"Last year, Fort Scott scrimmaged Baker (University) and we would have enjoyed a chance to scrimmage a Heart of America (Conference) team this year," Sims said. "But the NAIA and the Heart of America have changed their scheduling a little bit and it's made it difficult to do that. So we feel like, for our purposes, it's better not to scrimmage somebody else. Also, we'll also have a little bit of the element of surprise that when we come out (Aug. 25), that will be the first time people will see what we can do offensively and defensively.

"We ask people who are excited about Fort Scott football to come to the first game and get their first glimpse then."

The season opener will be played in the afternoon, with a 1 p.m. kickoff. But although the Greyhounds are getting ready for a game that will certainly be played in the heat by practicing in the heat, Sims says that his team will be prepared to play each week no matter what Mother Nature may offer.

"I learned a long time ago that any weather is our weather," Sims says. "We schedule our practices and we practice. We come to work rain, shine, heat, cold. We feel that's to our advantage. When we get to a game, we have no idea what the game conditions are going to be like but whatever it is, we'll be ready for it. We like it; we're excited about it. We feel like it adds a little bit of adversity. And any time you get a little bit of adversity, you deal with it and you have success and you become better."

The Greyhound staff has to decide which 55 players they will keep on the roster in these next two weeks. In many cases, it's the battle for the final 10 spots that is the most heated.

"We have a plan," Sims says of the eventual cutdown. "Everything is dictated -- the hours that we do and we have a plan for the day that we're going to pick our 55. But all plans are adjustable and every day we tweak that plan a little bit. We have to have that 55 by the day before the first game (Aug. 24) but I think it's already shaping into who's going to be the 55 or at the least the top 65-70 and who's going to be battling for those final couple of positions."