Penn football began spring training practice on March 22nd at Franklin Field. Credit: Samantha Turner 
Spring is the season of new beginnings. Flowers are blooming, leaves are budding, and the new Penn football season has officially begun. Wiping out the old, Quakers can take to the field with a fresh start.
On a cold Friday night, the Red and Blue teams played for the first time since organized winter practice before spring break. This organized play will be the first of many practices in hopes of building team cohesion and keeping the team in shape for the fall.
As the team rolled out to Franklin Field, each position group worked on its own drills. At one point, the entire team would gather for stretches and occasionally in groups, but the real highlight was the beginning of 1-on-1 and 7-on-7 drills.
In one-on-one drills, wide receivers were given an opportunity to practice deep ball receiving on one side of the field, while defensive backs were given an opportunity to practice interceptions on the other side. These simple drills are usually aimed at quarterbacks like expected senior starter Aidan Sain and sophomore backup Devin Page to practice ball placement downfield. Despite this fact, more attention was focused on one particular receiver, Julian “Juice” Stokes, than the quarterback. Stokes, who redshirted for this practice after being injured last season, was loudly congratulated by his teammates for participating in what was probably his first organized soccer practice in months.
Stokes repeatedly caught the ball with just one hand as his teammates shouted praises such as his nickname “Juice” and “He's back”.
“Offensively last year, we had two guys who were great players for us the year before but didn't play, Juice Stokes and Justin Cayenne,” Sain said. “It's great to have them back. They both do things that no one else can do, so it'll be fun to have them back and running around outside.”
Beyond one-on-one play, attack-versus-defense reps, organized for players to hone their skills, received the most attention. They played against their respective teammates and each team played for pride and bragging rights.
This play produced some highlight plays for players on both sides of the ball. Another receiver, junior Alex Haight, showed off his athleticism multiple times with diving catches down the field. On one play, Haight went full stretch to receive, resulting in a touchdown off a sharp pass from Saiin. The acrobatic finish drew cheers from the offensive sideline as well as jeers at the defense.
In another impressive play, Page hit a perfect pass to junior receiver Sage Webb into the left corner of the end zone, making another great pass that earned him high praise from the rest of the team.
“I especially want to give a shoutout today to the play that Devin Page threw to Sage Webb,” Sain said. “It was a touchdown on the left side of the end zone, a great throw.”
Despite these highlight-reel finishes, there were also plenty of great plays by the defense. With many veteran defensive backs graduating and seeing a significant amount of turnovers, young players will be forced to step up in practice and next season.
One athlete who has played his role well, and one to watch next season, is sophomore defensive back Devin Malloy. Malloy was uniquely impressive with two consecutive interceptions during open play. On one interception, he used a physical play to retrieve a tipped pass, and on the other he smoothly flipped his hips to get into position. Demonstrating a complete defensive package in practice, Malloy is just one of the impressive young players the Red and Blue teams are looking forward to seeing next year.
“We lost a lot of seniors, a lot of leaders last year,” senior linebacker Jack Fairman said. “It's great to see the new guys play.”
Beyond these highlights, players were given a chance to see the field, but any contact was restricted. There are limitations to this type of play, but the importance of seeing the field and hearing from the coach is immeasurable.
Taking a step back from practicing offense vs. defense, the real importance of the first practice lies in the preparation. There's a saying in the sports world that when it's not getting better, it's getting worse. This concept also applies to soccer, as coaches focus on keeping their players in shape throughout the long offseason.
As the spring season progresses, it will be fun to see how the team progresses heading into next season. With many starting positions in the air on both sides of the ball, the Quakers have a lot to learn about themselves before preparing for competitive play.
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