North Carolina State University Athletics
2002 Football Preseason Diary, Day 5 (Part Two)
8/3/2002 12:00:00 AM | Football
Aug. 3, 2002
I thought I'd add an addendum to this morning's diary, since I'm not planning to write tomorrow. The team was a little somber when I got to the field tonight. Evidently, A.J. Davis got a call this afternoon that his grandfather in Hamlet had passed away. Secondary Coach Chris Demarest was already gone today to attend his grandmother's funeral and Julius Patterson missed this morning to attend the funeral of a loved one as well. Coach Amato brought the team together and talked to them about how important it is to treasure our loved ones and to let them know how you feel about them. The whole team, led by Craig Moody, bowed and prayed for their teammates who were facing such tough times and said thanks for loved ones.
There was a nice breeze blowing tonight, as they went out for couple of hours. After spending a half hour on special teams, they worked on individual drills for most of the practice. I spent some time at the end where the receivers were working and was impressed with many of those guys. Freshman Brian Clark made a couple of tough catches and Tramain Hall, who was with the wide receivers tonight, looked like he had jets in his shoes on a couple of routes. Bryan Peterson and Jerricho Cotchery are old-faithful as always, catching everything thrown their way, but Sterling Hicks, Dovonte Edwards, Chris Murray, Andy Bertrand, Richard Washington - the list goes on of all the talented players at this position. Cotchery even caught a long pass (40 yards?) from none other than T.A. McLendon.
Practice ended with four gassers (sprints back and forth across the width of the field), but before they ran, Coach Amato told them that he was very pleased with the first day. From the jabbering going on during the gassers, it seemed that everyone had a pretty positive attitude after today.
Tomorrow, the team will go to church together and then have meetings throughout the afternoon. We'll also shoot the photos of the freshmen tomorrow, so maybe someone will top Chris Murray's red pinstripe suit from last year.
Diary, Day 1
Diary, Day 2
Diary, Day 3
Diary, Day 4
Diary, Day 5
