RISON - Rison Coach Caleb Carmikle said he will be looking to find ways to get his Wildcats to start a little faster when they return from the summer dead period in July.
Carmikle made those remarks after Rison hosted a team camp with DeWitt and Magnet Cove last Thursday morning, June 22, at George Walker Field of Champions. It was the last team camp before the Arkansas Activities Association’s (AAA) “dead period” went into effect this past Sunday, June 25.
During the dead period, schools are prohibited from participating in any kind of athletic activities between June 25 through July 9. Summer workouts and camps can resume on Monday, July 10.
“By the end of the day when you’re starting to see the other teams start getting tired is when we really start rolling,” Carmikle said in assessing the Wildcats’ performance last week.
“The slow starts - that’s a big issue were going to have to figure out,” he said.
While there were some successes both offensively and defensively for the Wildcats in the early going, there were some issues as well. Rison quarterback Owen Morrison was seeing some pressure in some passing plays, and there were some fumbles early on as well.
Carmikle attributed that to some of the receivers not being available for the camp, and some of the defenses were coming at them with some different looks rather than their base defense, which Carmikle said the Wildcats stayed in the whole camp.
Even then, however, Carmikle said he began to see some improvement as the day wore one.
Last week’s camp was the last time that Carmikle and his staff were able to evaluate players and schemes before the twoweek dead period. Carmikle identified three areas that will be a point of emphasis once the ‘Cats return for summer workouts July 10: learn to start faster, especially on offense; get the linebackers to attack more “down hill” on defense; and develop some d...
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