SPORTS

Berry welcomes Warhawks back to school

Adam Hunsucker
ahunsucker@thenewsstar.com

The majority of ULM's student population still has over a month before they have to entertain the thought of getting back to campus.

The football team is on a different calendar.

Warhawks young and old made their way to ULM this week to begin the first official set of workouts and partake in the second session of summer school.

"We're excited to get them back," ULM head coach Todd Berry said. "Some of the upperclassmen started to get back a little earlier and that's pretty normal along those lines. They're antsy to get this thing going."

For the second year in-a-row, the coaches can participate.

The NCAA amended its regulations regarding offseason workouts in 2014 that allows coaches to watch the sessions and hold meetings with the players. Prior to the change in legislation, only the strength and conditioning coach could have contact with players.

The rule change permits schools to hold a maximum of eight hours of mandatory workouts for eight weeks in the summer. Coaches get up to two hours of meeting time with the players per week.

ULM settled on a seven hour-workout and one hour-meeting per week approach after experimenting with it last summer.

"Last year it went really well and it gave us a pretty good idea what we wanted to accomplish out of it. Ideally I'd like to do the six (hours of workouts) and two (hours of meetings) per week but we can't afford for our guys to go to two sessions of summer school," Berry said.

"If we had them all summer like most programs do we could do six but we need that extra hour since it's only about a month leading to fall camp."

Class Is In Session

The routine awaiting the incoming freshmen is a little different from the rest of the roster.

Strength and conditioning coach Joe Girardi has separate workouts scheduled for them. On the academic side, they have weekly orientation and a one-hour study hall on their itinerary.

Berry also takes the acclimation process a step further by assigning each freshman a "big brother" to assist in the transition to college life.

"The older guys are responsible for taking care of them and educating them on our culture and what we expect," Berry said. "The freshmen tend to bond pretty quickly as a group. We brought them all in together for official visits on the same weekend so they've already gotten to know each other for the most part."

Berry said he's excited about the class as a whole and not just one position group.

"Quite honestly that's a good thing. When you're hurting somewhere on your team that's when you're looking forward to the freshmen group going in," Berry said. "I like this class but I like our football team right now and what we have from the guys coming back."

Recruiting Update

ULM entered the NCAA-mandated dead recruiting period with two verbal commitments for 2016.

Two-star offensive tackle Samuel Williams from Bearden, Arkansas became the Warhawks' first commit in June. ULM ended the month by getting a pledge from Cathedral (Natchez, Mississippi) linebacker James Coley.

Berry said he was pleased with the way recruiting has been going so far.

"We've seen an awful lot of guys and there's a really good list that we're interested in and that are interested in us," Berry said. "As far as commitments go I'm not big on forcing the issue at this point in time but they know we're here and we're excited about them and we're ready when they are."

ULM's class is tied for the fourth largest in the Sun Belt behind Texas State, Arkansas State and South Alabama.

The dead period runs through July 12.

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