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ST. JOSEPH — There were about 15 minutes left in practice for the St. Joseph Ogden football team.
And Dalton Walsh wasn’t happy.
As shadows began to fall on the grass at Dick Duvall Field on a lovely, sunny afternoon, with just three days until the Spartans hosted rival Unity, the team was ready to go.
The moment was right around the corner as SJ-O got serious about summer training in June, when Walsh, the Spartans’ eager and innovative offensive coordinator, made it public that he didn’t like the way the SJ-O scout team defense looked after Spartans quarterback Cody McKinney completed a pass.
“The outside linebacker’s gotta come straight at him,” Walsh yelled during SJ-O’s final practice, where the tension was palpable and communication between all parties involved, both coaches and players, increased from minutes earlier.
SJ-O coach Sean Skinner stood 20 yards behind the play, half-crouched with his hands on his knees to analyze the defense and give a succinct assessment of what he wants from his scout-team defense.
“Do what they’re doing,” Skinner said emphatically of Unity. “Pay attention to them, guys.”
The Spartans’ preferred no-huddle, up-tempo offense was on full display during those seven minutes, incorporating concepts the Spartans implemented over the summer and special plays designed just for the unity that McKinnie and the rest of the offense just learned during practice on Sept. 3.
“Our goal is always to make 20-plus plays in seven minutes,” Skinner said about 30 minutes later, standing on an empty Dick Duvall Field fresh from a 2-hour, 15-minute practice. “When we’re on a roll, we make 24 to 28 plays. On this day, we made 21 plays in both sessions.”
But senior wide receiver Coy Taylor pointed out a key element near the end of practice.
“About half of the plays we ran in the session were things we learned for this day and this game,” Skinner said.
Three days later, with an overflowing crowd at Dick Duval Field and a playoff-like atmosphere, Skinner and the Spartans celebrated a dramatic 24-21 victory over Unity, with Charlie Schmitz making a 31-yard field goal with five seconds left in the game.
Schmitz’s kick will be remembered for years to come, but Skinner and his nine assistant coaches will also be remembered for the effort they put in during this offensive-focused practice.
For Skinner, it started with taping his ankle.
In preparation
At about 3:20 p.m., only a handful of SJ-O football players remained in the Spartans’ locker room, while the rest made the short walk across the school’s parking lot to the turf at Dick Duvall Field.
But in that locker room, whose white walls were accented with the maroon and Columbia blue stripes of SJ-O’s school crest, Skinner worked on his practice using a roll of athletic tape.
“One of the best things about my college degree from McMurray was I got to do two semesters of athletic training,” Skinner said of the now-closed university in Jacksonville. “I got to train the players in the spring for nine weeks straight. As a coach, that was very beneficial to me. If you’d told me I’d still be doing that at this age, I don’t know if I would have believed you. We have great trainers, but they’re not always here at the start of practice, so if the kids need it, I’m happy to do it.”
Once his ankle was properly tended to, Skinner strode out to practice in khaki cargo shorts, ankle-length black socks, white low-top Nike shoes with a black swoosh, a Columbia blue hoodie with a large SJ-O logo across the chest and a white SJ-O hat with the same Spartans logo.
The practice began with specialist and individual drills, with kickers practicing kicking and punting and McKinney and the other SJ-O quarterbacks throwing passes to receivers.
Skinner walked around the field with two laminated practice sheets stuffed in each of his back pockets, contacted other assistant coaches and spoke with many of his players individually before gathering his team at midfield at 3:40 p.m.
Attention then shifted to the Spartans’ next matchup against Unity, a team SJ-O hadn’t beaten on their home turf since 2018.
“We’ve got to stay focused and stay sharp,” Skinner told his team, who took a knee and formed a semicircle around him. “We need to have two really good days of practice.”
Familiar Rhythms
During the season, the Spartans follow a similar pattern each week: Come in after school on Mondays, watch video, introduce new plays or blitzes, do some light walking around the field if necessary, get players in some light cardio, and that’s it.
On Tuesday, SJ-O will focus primarily on offense.
The direction of practice on Wednesday will be a defensive tone, while Thursday will see the team make final preparations before Friday night’s game.
Saturday and Sunday are off days for players and coaches, with Skinner and his assistants in frequent contact via text, phone and email. Skinner said lessons he learned from playing for and later coaching with Dick Duvall at SJ-O, and from serving as an assistant coach under veteran Westville coach Guy Goodlove, are why he wants to avoid any player or coaching obligations on the weekends.
“Dick and Guy were very insistent that their assistants spend weekends with their families,” Skinner says, “and I’m very grateful for that insistence, and I continue to do so to this day.”
Guys going to work, Tuesday’s practice starts the same way for the Spartans as Wednesday and Thursday did.
Special teams are in action.
“That’s always been drilled into me,” Skinner said.
SJ-O special teams coordinator Marshall Schacht leads these sessions, instructing players on what to do specifically on squib kicks and short kickoffs. Once the field goal unit finishes work at 4 p.m., SJ-O’s offense becomes top priority.
Skinner and Walsh discuss strategy as they set up black trash cans around the 20-yard line near the end zone at Dick Duval Field, with the big scoreboard looming in the background.
McKinney and Spartans wide receivers Taylor, Tanner Siems, Tim Blackburn-Kelly and Kayden Wedig will begin setting up new plays with five defensive players mimicking the plays SJ-O expects Unity to make. Trash cans will act as stand-ins for offensive linemen, and the Spartans offensive line will step aside to work on specific positions.
The Rockets, led by Hall of Fame coach Scott Hamilton and Hall of Fame defensive coordinator Dave Fink, were fresh off a 32-13 win at Prairie Central on Aug. 30, a game in which Skinner and SJ-O’s other assistant coaches played more man-to-man defense with Unity’s defensive backs than the Rockets had ever seen.
“I’m sure we’ll see a lot of man-to-man offense in Cover 1 or Cover 0,” Skinner said, “and again, they might come in with a completely different offense, so we’ll adjust if that happens, but we’ve got to be ready for a man-to-man offense.”
Learning Experience
The Rockets used a lot of man coverage in last Friday night’s game, but the defense used a lot of zone coverage to contain the Spartans, and they also mixed in Cover 2 and Cover 3, which don’t put any specific player at fault, throughout the game.
McKinnie, who completed 19 of 30 passes for 240 yards, two touchdowns and one interception in last Friday night’s win over the Rockets – a week after that Sept. 3 practice – said the different look the Rockets showed on Tuesday made for some tough moments for him.
“I thought they were going to play man-to-man, but then they started switching it up,” McKinney said. “I’d never seen them play like that before, so it was a little disconcerting, but it was good to experience it and I learned a lot from it.”
It’s time to depart
McKinney and the wide receivers spent much of the next 50 minutes working through some plays, primarily working with Walsh and offensive line coach Mike Bialecki.
“We have great people on our staff. The first couple years I was here, I was running the offense,” said Skinner, who is in his ninth year leading the Spartans. “We have a Hall of Fame defensive coordinator in Bob Glazer, and as time went on, I got more involved with the defense. Coach Walsh and Coach Bialesczyk run the offense and they’re doing a great job. I don’t want to be a micromanager. They’re all great coaches and they know what to do.”
The atmosphere is relaxed but focused, with Walsh staring down at a laminated call sheet and issuing rapid-fire play calls. But the mood changes when the SJ-O offense marches down the field from the 10-yard line as the Spartans go into a full 11-on-11 set at 5:20 p.m.
“Tempo!” Skinner yelled mid-period. “Move! Move!”
Play moves quickly, almost exactly how the Spartans want it, with very little time to waste.
The sense of urgency that Coach Skinner and his assistants require from their players is felt by the players.
“Let’s go,” Blackburn Kelly yells after catching a long pass. “Why are you walking?”
A few more plays followed before Skinner blew a short whistle.
“Everybody hop in,” Skinner said. “Let’s go.”
A different perspective
And so, at 5:45 p.m., the Spartans gathered near midfield, did some quick stretches and listened to their head coach one more time before leaving Dick Duval Field.
“During the season, we can look back and see that practices weren’t that bad,” SJ-O senior linebacker Jared Altenbaumer said, “especially the environment we’re surrounded by is really challenging. My mindset has changed a lot from my freshman year to now. As a freshman, I hated practices. Being a senior, my mindset about practice has really changed, and it shows in our skill. So many guys have improved so much and it’s because of these practices.”
A football coach’s job isn’t done until the season is over, and for Skinner and the Spartans, the hope is that these practices will carry them through November and into a strong run in the Class 3A playoffs. Last week, SJ-O responded to the situation they faced against Unity and prepared well enough to pull off a close win over their longtime rival.
For many players, the fun part is coming out on top on Friday nights, but for Skinner and his assistants, what happens during practice is just as important.
“That’s what coaching and teaching is all about,” Skinner said. “Every coach I know can draw something on a whiteboard, but can they teach it and present it in a way that kids can understand? Our kids have the football IQ to do that. I’ve been on teams that can do it and I’ve been on teams that can’t. This team can do it, so they have a chance to be successful.”
