THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, October 24, 1996 TAG: 9610240533
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: TOM ROBINSON
LENGTH: 111 lines
Standing on a lighted football field at 5 a.m., watching 50 players for Elizabeth City State University in full pads stretch to begin a two-hour practice, there is only one thing I can conclude; there are morning people and there are morning people, but this is ridiculous.
Yet, here we are. The lights of Roebuck Stadium are ablaze against a pitch-black, moonless sky that won't even start to lighten for 90 minutes. The Vikings, up since 4:15, have trotted across Herrington Road from their locker room in the Vaughan Center. In the absolute quiet, each has tapped the cushion covering the goal post as he entered, to show respect for the field.
That is one of coach Elisha ``Cadillac'' Harris' little behaviors and maxims that mean a lot to him. He has plenty of them - things like ``we are our brother's keeper;'' ``we cannot direct the wind, but we can adjust the sails;'' and ``excellence is not an act, but a habit.''
And over the last month, he has created another credo that could read, ``to get at a man's heart, go through his alarm clock.''
There's been no lack of introspection at ECSU since Harris, the Vikings' rookie coach from Virginia Beach, installed the ungodly early workouts. It isn't that Harris fancies himself a John Chaney, who runs his famous 6 a.m. basketball practices at Temple University because he wants to.
Harris, the former coach at Green Run High School, found he had no choice. As many as 10 players regularly missed some or all of the Vikings' original afternoon practices a couple times a week because of unchangeable class schedules, so Harris was forced into the unthinkable.
``He had been saying for a while the only chance to get the team together was 5 a.m.,'' says junior Derrick Wilkes, a 330-pound lineman who answers to ``Roadblock.'' ``But I really didn't pay much attention to it.''
Roadblock, who admits he slept through the first 5 a.m. practice, obviously underestimated Harris' belief in togetherness. Harris wants the Vikings to be a family, and he says the family is strongest when it does things as a unit. It does wonders for knowing the playbook, too.
So now, practice finishes well before the start of 8 a.m. classes and there are ``no excuses,'' Harris says. Trainer Bernard Manuel shows up at 4 to prepare to tape and apply treatment. Designated wake-up callers like sophomore defensive tackle Omari Salisbury rise at 4:10 and ring the rooms of four or five teammates, just to be sure.
And at 3:30, after four or five hours of sleep, Harris gets up in his Lake Christopher home, inhales some juice and a banana, and by 3:50 has his Isuzu Rodeo heading toward the Dismal Swamp for the 40-minute drive to work.
``This is incredible. And I'm not a morning person, so it doesn't help,'' Harris, 42, says as he rips through the Swamp, flicking his high beams on and off. ``Ask any other coach who's ever worked with me, `Would Cadillac be on the practice field even at 7 in the morning?' and they'd tell you no. This is a major commitment for everybody, but I think they understand this isn't something that I want to do. To the contrary.''
Players say once the shock wore off, the grumbling started, not to mention the dozing off in class. Some quit, and some were talked out of it. And those who stayed knew that rebellion was out of the question.
They tried that early in the season, when during a team meeting the Vikings decided their coaches were driving them unduly hard and voiced that concern. Harris responded by running the Vikings ragged, sticking a big bucket on the field and inviting anyone present to drop his equipment inside it and go have a nice life.
``It was hard to adjust,'' says running back Aaron Murchinson, a team captain. ``It's a mental thing. But I feel we can do it if the head coach wakes up and drives down from Virginia to do it. If he can sacrifice, we can get our lazy butts out of bed.''
That doesn't make a 5:30 a.m. full-contact scrimmage any less surreal. Ditto a scene like this: a darkened field across from the stadium, a row of puffing linemen pushing a blocking sled through the shadows of pine trees, Harris exhorting them to, ``Move your feet! We've gotta run the ball, fellas. That means you!''
``I've seen the guys have fun at times,'' says Harris, who pronounces this practice a fun one. The Vikings, who enter Saturday's home game against Norfolk State with a 4-3 record, are 3-2 since their move to early morning. ``We have our good days and bad days.''
Practicing in a driving rain, you'd think, would automatically be a bad day. But Salisbury says a morning two weeks ago when the Vikings thought they'd be in the gym for sure, only to see Harris wave them outside, ``became one of the best practices we've had. We turned it into a want-to.
``That's what it's all about. You can be angry, but if you just muddle along it makes it a lonn-nng day. That's one good thing about this; it got rid of the people who didn't want it in the first place. If you didn't want to sacrifice, good riddance. It showed where their heart was at.''
Harris, whose heart sits clearly on his sleeve, would prefer a different barometer next year, but he can't control when faculty schedule classes, especially required courses for seniors.
He just ``hopes and prays,'' he says, that school officials will review a situation that keeps other students, not just football players, from extracurricular activities.
Or, in the case of his Vikings, turns them into a crazy Predawn Patrol.
``This isn't normal,'' Harris says. ``But I couldn't rest if I knew I hadn't done all I could for the team to be successful on Saturdays. Walking away second-guessing this or that, no, that would be more painful than this is.'' ILLUSTRATION: LAWRENCE JACKSON COLOR PHOTOS/The Virginian-Pilot
Elizabeth City State University players trudge out to Roebuck
Stadium for 5 a.m. practice five days a week.
``This is a major commitment for everybody, but I think they
understand this isn't something that I want to do,'' said coach
Elisha ``Cadillac'' Harris.
PHOTOS BY LAWRENCE JACKSON/The Virginian-Pilot
ECSU coach Elisha ``Cadillac'' Harris only has time for a banana and
orange juice, top, when he gets up at 3:30 a.m. That's to make sure
he's on time for practice at 5, above, with his team. by CNB