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Kind of a coaching move by Brett?
By Stan Caldwell
Gannett News Service
HATTIESBURG, Miss. — Once Brett Favre decided to come back for a 16th season as the Green Bay Packers' quarterback, he showed he was serious about being in shape.
Favre, who today reports to the Packers' training camp in Green Bay, has spent almost every morning for the past three weeks working out with players from Oak Grove High School.
He's thrown passes to the Warriors' wide receivers and given their quarterbacks tips on how to improve as they prepare for the 2006 season.
"I'm helping myself out," Favre said. "I've been doing a lot of running with these guys. I've run more and thrown more in the last three weeks than I have in recent memory."
Favre lives in the Oak Grove area during the offseason, and his daughter, Brittany, will be a senior at Oak Grove this fall, so he has an attachment to the Warriors.
Oak Grove coach Nevil Barr said it was "special for the kids" to have Favre on hand.
"This is a chance for him to run with them and to throw with them, and it's helped us. We did what we would have done anyway; we just had Brett Favre throwing the ball," he said.
Naturally, the Oak Grove quarterbacks taking part in the team's voluntary workouts enjoyed it.
"It was a blast, a great experience," senior Kirk Lance said. "Any time you get to throw with Brett Favre, it's fun. I felt like a little kid out there."
Lance said the most important thing he got from working with Favre was a sense of mental preparation.
"It wasn't just fundamentals," Lance said. "It was just a lot of mental stuff about what it takes to get to the next level."
Lance completed 148 of 258 passes (57.4 percent) for 2,883 yards and 31 touchdowns in leading Oak Grove to a 12-1 record and a berth in the Class 5A South State finals.
"He threw for more yards and more touchdowns than I did last year, so maybe I should get some pointers from him," Favre said.
Actually, Favre threw for more yards, 3,881, but he had only 20 touchdowns and he threw a league-high 29 interceptions last season.
Improving on those numbers played a big part in his decision to get some extra work in before training camp starts Friday night in Green Bay.
"It's been good for me," Favre said. "I didn't want to make a big deal out of it, and it wasn't a big deal for the kids, either. I didn't try to put my style of play on them. They have their own way of doing things, and they're pretty good at it."
Oak Grove is 53-14 in Barr's five seasons as coach, and using the kind of help Favre can provide has been part of that success.
"It was exciting being able to work with him," junior Drew Norwood said. "He gave us a lot of pointers, a lot of little things that I can use, such as how to get the ball out quicker.
"Just watching him throw, and knowing he's played in the NFL and done good in the NFL. Just to watch him was amazing."
