Photo by: All Pro Photography/Dale Sparks
Sunday’s Ladies Huddle Event Another Great Success
July 21, 2019 05:14 PM | Football
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Earlier this week, West Virginia's first-year football coach Neal Brown spent an entire day in Arlington, Texas, at Big 12 media day fielding questions from inquiring reporters about who his starting quarterback is going to be.
So, naturally the very first question he got during today's Ladies Huddle event at Milan Puskar Stadium was from someone wanting to know who his starting quarterback was going to be for the season opener against James Madison on Saturday, Aug. 31, at Milan Puskar Stadium.
They know.
More than 200 ladies from as far west as Utah and as far south as Florida participated in this year's Ladies Huddle, sponsored by the Mountaineer Athletic Club. Also participating were mothers of some of the players on this year's team.
According to Jamie Hall, assistant athletics director in charge of donor relations and administration for the Mountaineer Athletic Club, this is the seventh year for the event and the sixth involving the MAC.
There were two sessions today, the first beginning at 12:30 and ending at 4:15 and the second starting at 2:15 and ending at 6:15.
"Our fan base is really passionate and the ladies in our fan base are extremely passionate as well," Brown said Sunday afternoon. "This is a fun event. Their husbands, brothers, boyfriends or whatever, they played the game where very few ladies have played the game of football.
"So this allows them to go through some of the drills, put on a uniform and maybe see some of the struggles people close to them go through while playing the game."
Brown, his Mountaineer coaching staff and select players were out on the steamy Milan Puskar Stadium turf running various stations for the women to participate in drills and learn more about the game.
They blocked, form tackled, ran patterns and caught passes just like the Mountaineers will be doing in a couple of weeks.
In between, they were served plenty of ice water!
"Today was about having fun, giving the ladies some behind-the-scenes access and spending some time with our players and staff," Brown explained.
"The thing about football is (fans) never get to see their faces," he added. "In basketball they can see them. It's close. In football these guys are always wearing helmets and they don't get to know them as much so this is really good for that as well."
This morning, Brown and his staff completed their preseason retreat at Glade Springs Resort just outside of Beckley in the southern part of the state before driving back to Morgantown for today's event.
Their planners and calendars are now full as they make final preparations before fall training camp begins on Friday, Aug. 2.
"It's football season," Brown explained. "We've taken some time during this dead period in the summer to spend some time with our families and now it's back in the office. Now it's time to get organized and get ready for fall camp."
This week the players are finishing summer workouts and then will get a couple of days off before the training camp begins.
"This is really an important week putting the final touches on their summer workout program and really getting conditioned for being out in the heat," Brown noted. "As coaches, what we're doing is we're going through and making all of our final preparations for fall camp from installation in all three phases to how we're going to go and work on each opponent during the season."
Brown said he's excited to finally have full-scale preparations for the 2019 season underway.
"It's been seven months and I think we've made a lot of improvement over those seven months," he said. "We've intentionally spent a lot of time with our players so I have a lot better idea going into fall camp who our guys are, what their strengths are, and I'm really looking forward to working with our new guys.
"Our roster has changed a great deal since we've had our spring game, so I'm looking forward to getting out here with a ball and being able to practice," he said.
The next opportunity for the fans to meet and greet Brown, the players and coaches will be on Saturday, Aug. 3 for Fan Day.
"It will give an opportunity for our fans to come and watch a whole practice and then afterward sign some autographs and those types of things," he concluded.
So, naturally the very first question he got during today's Ladies Huddle event at Milan Puskar Stadium was from someone wanting to know who his starting quarterback was going to be for the season opener against James Madison on Saturday, Aug. 31, at Milan Puskar Stadium.
They know.
More than 200 ladies from as far west as Utah and as far south as Florida participated in this year's Ladies Huddle, sponsored by the Mountaineer Athletic Club. Also participating were mothers of some of the players on this year's team.
According to Jamie Hall, assistant athletics director in charge of donor relations and administration for the Mountaineer Athletic Club, this is the seventh year for the event and the sixth involving the MAC.
There were two sessions today, the first beginning at 12:30 and ending at 4:15 and the second starting at 2:15 and ending at 6:15.
"Our fan base is really passionate and the ladies in our fan base are extremely passionate as well," Brown said Sunday afternoon. "This is a fun event. Their husbands, brothers, boyfriends or whatever, they played the game where very few ladies have played the game of football.
"So this allows them to go through some of the drills, put on a uniform and maybe see some of the struggles people close to them go through while playing the game."
Brown, his Mountaineer coaching staff and select players were out on the steamy Milan Puskar Stadium turf running various stations for the women to participate in drills and learn more about the game.
They blocked, form tackled, ran patterns and caught passes just like the Mountaineers will be doing in a couple of weeks.
In between, they were served plenty of ice water!
"Today was about having fun, giving the ladies some behind-the-scenes access and spending some time with our players and staff," Brown explained.
"The thing about football is (fans) never get to see their faces," he added. "In basketball they can see them. It's close. In football these guys are always wearing helmets and they don't get to know them as much so this is really good for that as well."
This morning, Brown and his staff completed their preseason retreat at Glade Springs Resort just outside of Beckley in the southern part of the state before driving back to Morgantown for today's event.
Their planners and calendars are now full as they make final preparations before fall training camp begins on Friday, Aug. 2.
"It's football season," Brown explained. "We've taken some time during this dead period in the summer to spend some time with our families and now it's back in the office. Now it's time to get organized and get ready for fall camp."
This week the players are finishing summer workouts and then will get a couple of days off before the training camp begins.
"This is really an important week putting the final touches on their summer workout program and really getting conditioned for being out in the heat," Brown noted. "As coaches, what we're doing is we're going through and making all of our final preparations for fall camp from installation in all three phases to how we're going to go and work on each opponent during the season."
Brown said he's excited to finally have full-scale preparations for the 2019 season underway.
"It's been seven months and I think we've made a lot of improvement over those seven months," he said. "We've intentionally spent a lot of time with our players so I have a lot better idea going into fall camp who our guys are, what their strengths are, and I'm really looking forward to working with our new guys.
"Our roster has changed a great deal since we've had our spring game, so I'm looking forward to getting out here with a ball and being able to practice," he said.
The next opportunity for the fans to meet and greet Brown, the players and coaches will be on Saturday, Aug. 3 for Fan Day.
"It will give an opportunity for our fans to come and watch a whole practice and then afterward sign some autographs and those types of things," he concluded.
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