FC coach Gardner's been waiting for first practice

The day Scott Gardner has been looking forward to has finally come. Now, he's counting down already to something else.

Gardner, Farmville Central's first-year head football coach, will hold his team's first full-squad practice today which concludes a summer of smooth transition since being promoted from Jaguars assistant.

"We've had some fun this summer," Gardner said. "We've worked out some, got some conditioning in and even hit the weights a few times. We're really looking forward to getting started."

As the Jaguar players take the field today in shorts and T-shirts, Gardner is already looking forward to getting through his first nine practices so he can finally see his players strap on the full gridiron gear.

"I'm excited about getting them in pads and seeing what they can really do," Gardner said. "We've seen some good things in the summer, and I want to see if we can carry over to the pads. It's a whole different world when you put on pads and have full contact."

Gardner has been evaluating his players since being hired shortly after school let out, but said he still isn't sure exactly what kind of team he'll put on the field come Aug. 22 in the Jags' first game away to Plymouth.

"I know we want to be a physical team," Gardner said. "But I'm really not sure what we're going to be good at. We've got a little bit of skill, a little bit of size and a little bit of finesse. I'd like to be a smashmouth, run-over-you type team that's going to come out and get physical every Friday night, but that might not be us. We look fairly as good in spread sets as we two in two-tight(ends).

"It'll be interesting, and the pads will tell a lot."

But before traveling to take on the Vikings, Farmville Central has a scrimmage to get ready for, which will come one day after the players are eligible to put on full pads. If anyone misses a practice, Gardner said, they won't be able to take part in the scrimmage.

Until then, Gardner will have the players work on mostly technique.

"We've got to get our fundamentals in, like the hitting and how to make contact," Gardner said.

John Swartz can be reached at jswartz@coxnc.com or (252) 329-9592.