8/12/2013 1:39:00 PM | Football
Purchase Tickets Online | Coach Shafer's Remarks
The SU football team got off to an early start this morning, practicing at 10 a.m. to get ready to leave for Fort Drum in the afternoon. The Orange will stay at the military post from Monday evening until Friday afternoon.
"There are multiple reasons we go to Fort Drum," Coach Shafer said. "First and foremost it's to get away, to be alone. There's no cell service, we're not going to have the internet and a lot of the luxuries the kids have on a day-to-day basis are going to be taken away from them and the coaches. There will be fewer distractions. The other reason we're going to Fort Drum is to be around the world's greatest military, and one of the greatest divisions in the military, the 10th Mountain Division."
For the second year, Syracuse will hold preseason practices at Fort Drum and take part in military training activities with the 10th Mountain Division throughout the week. The Orange will cap the trip off with an inter-squad scrimmage for the military personnel and their families.
The squad will live in the military barracks during the stay at the post, hold meetings in an Army Battalion Headquarters and eat in an Army Dining Facility. Players and coaches will participate in various military activities, including Army Physical Training and small unit leadership seminars.
"Our objective coming out of it is to be a tighter knit group," Shafer said. "We're going to have exercises behind the scenes where we're working on small group leadership. There'll be ten guys in a group and they're all responsible for each other. Getting to meals on time, waking up on time, making sure they have all their gear on for practice. The focuses are simple but they are extremely important to us to be successful as a team. We look forward to getting out there and becoming a tighter knit group by looking at the guys who know how to do it best, the United States military."
Fort Drum features 30 range facilities, 17 major training areas, two active drop zones on nearly 107,000 acres of land, for a population of just more than 19,000 active military personnel.
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