Tyler Griffin tried his best to stay in shape so he wouldn’t be too far behind when summer workouts resumed.

Last week, Griffin and his Southeast Lauderdale teammates returned to football activities for the first time since March. During the coronavirus shutdowns, the most the players could do was workouts at home, which were provided by coaches. Now that he’s back doing team activities, Griffin said he’s glad he tried his best to stay active when he couldn’t come to Southeast’s campus.

“I slacked a couple of days (during the shutdown), and I’m wrong for that,” Griffin said. “Overall, I think I’m OK with my conditioning. We have to catch up a little bit and have to show out during these workouts.”

The MHSAA allowed schools to resume athletic activities June 1 with restrictions aimed at helping prevent the spread of the coronavirus during workouts. Southeast has three separate stations during its workouts, which players attend a couple of times a week. One station is atop the hill overlooking the football field, where players do agility drills; the second is on the football field, where players do conditioning work; the third is in front of the team’s field house, where players lift weights.

“It’s a little different, but for the most part we’re doing what we’ve been doing, just keeping our distance between people,” senior Roman Hudnall said.

Tigers head coach Calvin Hampton said like everyone else, he and the coaches are having to get the players caught up in strength and conditioning after not being around them for three months. Fortunately for him, most of the players did a good job staying active during the coronavirus shutdowns.

“I’ve seen excitement out of them,” Hampton said. “We expected some guys to be out of shape, but some came in, in better shape than what I expected, so that was exciting. Some of them don’t like the regulations that we’re following, but it’s for their safety. As far as being in shape, though, they’ve all been pretty good.”

Hudnall said he took advantage of places like Bonita Lakes Park to stay on top of his conditioning, which allowed him to not be too far behind when team activities resumed.

“I feel like I improved,” Hudnall said. “Coach (Hampton) sent everyone workouts, so I worked out at home or went to Bonita or different places.”

When workouts resumed, Hampton said his message to the team was to stay on top of their workouts now so they wouldn’t have regrets down the road.

“No excuses,” Hampton said. “At the end of the day, they’re not going to look at a losing season and say, ‘Well, we had the pandemic going on and all types of stuff going on in the world right now, so that’s the reason you lost.’ They’re going to say, ‘We lost because another team was better than us.’ I also really preached to the guys about togetherness. No matter what’s going on in the world around us, we have to embrace and love each other, and we have to be real and honest with each other about things. The team is what matters.”

So far, Griffin said he and his teammates have had the correct approach.

“Everyone is focused,” Griffin said. “Our attitude has been great, and I think we’ll do better as a team.”

Senior lineman Jacob Bielefeld said the coaches are pushing the players hard to help them get where they need to be in strength and conditioning. As tough as the workouts are, they’re worth it if it means a successful fall.

“If we didn’t have these workouts, we wouldn’t have a season,” Bielefeld said. “They matter.”

Not only that, but being around each other again, even if interaction is limited due to the MHSAA regulations, helps build team chemistry.

“I missed some of them, the ones I hadn’t seen in a while,” Hudnall said. “I’m happy we’re back here working out and getting ready for the season.”