Football team practices before captive audience - The Courier
The University of Findlay football coach’s latest idea might just be the most eye-opening experience yet for his players, his coaching staff and himself. On Sunday, the Oilers held a full-on two-hour practice to an audience of a few hundred inmates in the prison yard at the Marion Correctional Institute in Marion. “As a staff, we saw it as a different way to educate players,” Keys said. The idea first came to Keys and his staff after the University of North Carolina men’s basketball coaching legend Dean Smith died in February. As remembrances of Smith were shown after his death, the UF coaching staff took note of Smith holding team practices at various prisons. “We’re the perfect place for it. ”. As of May 31, the Marion Correctional Institute is populated by 2,563 inmates. There are 1,707 level two or medium security inmates while one inmate is a level three or close security inmate. The Oilers arrived at the prison at about 1 p. m. on three charter buses which took them around to the northeast end of the prison yard. While the yard has regular athletic facilities, such as basketball courts and baseball diamonds, a section of the grass had to be lined the full 120 yards so the Oilers could practice without improvisation. As UF lined up along the east sidelines, inmates were instructed to fill the west sideline and the south end zone if they wished to watch. Source: thecourier.com
