By MONTE DUTTON

It was a pleasant Monday afternoon as the Laurens Academy football team endeavored to become more agile, hostile and mobile.

Seventeen cavorted about, blocking and tackling stuffed implements of various sizes, leaping, hurdling, stepping, sidestepping and generally trying to get up to wherever the snuff is.

Up to snuff. Get it?

The first gentle breezes of a tropical storm still distant wafted about, and majestic cumulus clouds moved across the sky like an aerial flotilla.

I said, to no one in particular, “There’s rain over yonder.”

Turns out it was at my house, but the shower had moved on by the time I got home bearing photographs with which to finagle.

The Crusaders play football eight boys at a time. Head coach Jolly Doolittle and his two assistants put the team through its paces, teaching fundamentals diligently.

Seldom do players imitate drum majors in games, but they use the peculiar gait to stretch and increase flexibility. They looked like two-legged Tennessee Walkers. I’ve attended horse shows. It’s a compliment.

The work was mainly academic, not in the sense of “related to education and scholarship” as much as “not of practical relevance; of only theoretical interest.”

The players were learning how to get in proper stances, execute proper blocks and tackles and cultivate an esprit de corps because, after all, the Olympic Games are in France.

I left before they got around to running plays, in no small part due to my aversion to getting caught down in the bottom land at LA where baseball teams play and football teams practice.

On Friday night in Johnston at a SCISA jamboree, Laurens Academy is scheduled to face Cathedral Academy at 6:30 p.m. The Generals are quartered in North Charleston, which, given the weather forecast in the Low Country, makes getting up to Johnston seem questionable.

The Crusaders, in Doolittle’s first year at the helm, were 4-8. They get a head start on the 11-playing Red Devils and Raiders on Aug. 16, playing Cambridge Academy in Greenwood. A week later, Woodruff visits Clinton and Hillcrest travels to Laurens.

The first half of the season is uncommonly germane to the rest of the schedule. The Cougars are the only opponent the Crusaders don’t play twice.

Laurens Academy then plays Newberry Academy, Wardlaw, Richard Winn, King and Newberry Academy, and then it plays them a second time for Region 1, Class A (8-man) credit.

The eight-man game is a wide-open pastime that sometimes looks like soccer with huddles and a calculator. Laurens Academy’s most recent game produced a combined total of 90 points.

The football workout began with weight training in a building at the football field, which is over the hill and through the woods. Anticipating little room for all the players, let alone a photographer, I read a novel on my phone

Meanwhile, in the gym above the baseball field, the Crusaders’ powerful volleyball team practiced. Shannon McGee’s teams are 81-14-2 over the past three seasons and are coming off consecutive state championships.

The schedule opens on Aug. 10 with a tournament at Newberry Academy. A week later, Aug. 17, it’s another one at Pelion High School. The home opener is against Shannon Forest on Aug. 19.

As football season approaches, I expect to streamline the site name. Since the coverage – Furman and Laurens County – is difficult to convey in a word, I may stick with Wellpilgrim (com, net, et al.). Or, if anyone thinks of anything snazzy, I’ll take it under advisement.

A shorter name makes it more likely that readers go directly to the site without linking through social media (not that there’s anything wrong with that).

Advertising alone will not keep me going, but there’s room for a few more. Every ad is inset in every story.

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