For the first time since March 16, the last day of in-person school, the Siloam Springs boys soccer team held a team workout Monday morning at Panther Stadium.
Around 24 players showed up for the hour-long workout, which was a non-contact session as directed for soccer by state health regulations and the Arkansas Activities Association.
"It was fun to get the guys back out here, just working on the ball, working on fitness and more just social interaction," said head coach Luke Shoemaker. "I love Zoom and being able to connect us, but you can only do so much with Zoom."
All sports were allowed to resume practices on June 1, but Shoemaker didn't want to begin soccer practice until the first of July.
"I scheduled this back in March before covid," Shoemaker said. "I wanted to do some summer stuff anyway just to get guys back here, get the younger group in, show some drills so when we get to September we're ready to roll."
The Panthers wound up playing seven games in the 2020 season before it was shut down by covid-19, winning four, losing one and drawing two.
Because it was their first week of practice, the Panthers must go through the acclimatization period and limit workouts to one hour for the first couple of practices. They can increase length of practices after that.
"We're at the one-hour limit for the first couple of days," Shoemaker said. "Of course some of the guys play multiple sports, so they can go longer. I want to keep it all balanced."
Shoemaker said crafting a practice routine without contact drills is a challenge. Though players can touch the same ball, they are not allowed to have contact or scrimmage each other.
"It's a unique animal with the rules with being able to structure soccer practice," he said. "One of the biggest parts of soccer is just playing the game and you can't play it."
Shoemaker said the Panthers began practice with some individual touch drills, where it's just a player with a ball working in space. At the same time another player may be running up and down a line or doing other quick feet drills.
The Panthers worked on passing pattern after that.
"Traditional passing patterns you rotate, you follow your ball," Shoemaker said. "We had to do point to point, no rotation so you're always 12 feet apart, no matter where you're standing."
The Panthers worked on designed shooting drills where they were anywhere from 12- to 20-feet apart.
Shoemaker said he wanted the players to work with all surfaces of the foot.
"Oh we're rusty. I mean that's obvious," he said. "I knew that would be the case. Even in football today, you could tell. Ten days off is a lot to the body let alone three months off."
The Panthers will have 10 more practices on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays before the scheduled start of school on Aug. 13.
Shoemaker said he'll give the team some time off when school starts before having practice two times a week in September. That will ramp up to three, four and five practices a week leading into the spring.
"We've got a long way to go," Shoemaker said. "Luckily we've got a long way to our season to get to our top form."
Shoemaker said if all underclassmen return, the Panthers should have about 30 on the roster, and that doesn't include several freshman.
"We had a lot of freshman out today that showed good stuff," he said.
He expects the roster to be about 40 by the time January hits, which is a good number for varsity and junior varsity. That roster is highlighted by a large junior class, he said.
"Our junior class, I've set the bar pretty high for them," Shoemaker said. "They remind me a lot of Jack Bos' class: Large numbers, large talent. I think this whole down time really made them hungry, because only about three of them got to play in the 2019 finals. And the team as a whole, no one left was on that 2017 title team. There's not a guy in this locker room that has a ring. So you want to talk some hungry guys, they're excited to be out here."
