JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. (WJHL) – Monday was an off day for members of the ETSU football team – just a couple of meetings scheduled for the evening.
Or so they thought.
After a brief meeting with the squad, head coach George Quarles sprung a surprise on the guys.
“Just said ‘Hey, when we get here our main job is to have fun,'” he said. “They were like ‘Have fun?'”
Members of the Bucs team and staff made the trip over to Tiebreakers in Johnson City to relax and enjoy. It’s a small break that Quarles said was needed.
“You know, it’s good to kind of break the monotony of camp and get out and do something fun,” he said. “And obviously, if you can’t have a good time at Tiebreakers – there’s something wrong with you.”
Players started with some pizza for dinner, before hitting the bowling alley and arcade for some competition and games with their teammates.
“I mean, it’s awesome,” Tiebreakers general manager Karson Keller said. “Anything that we can do to build our relationship with the University – just to be able to go above and beyond for them and have us go above and beyond for us.”
It will be right back to work on Tuesday morning, as the Blue and Gold will suit up for the first fully-padded practice of camp. Quarles believes it will start to give his staff a more complete evaluation of the players he has.
“Defensively we’ve got some new guys – got some new linebackers brought in,” he said. “We want to see how well they tackle and tackle in space.”
“You want to see the running back – Torey Lambert – the new kid,” he continued. “We want to see him run and see if he can break tackles … and you know just everybody. Until you start tackling and doing it live, it’s not really football.”
