Tift County football benefiting from yoga sessions

Published 1:00 pm Thursday, January 26, 2023

TIFTON — Sarah Herring had words of encouragement for her yoga class on a Wednesday morning.

“If you’re not feeling this, lengthen your stance.” “Nothing else matters except what you’re doing right now.”

Large groups are not unfamiliar with yoga, nor were any of instructions issued by Herring, who works with Tifton Yoga Center. But what might be a surprise is the audience she has been working with at 7:45 a.m. on on recent Wednesdays.

Herring’s studio for this class is a gymnasium. Her participating audience are Tift County High football players.

Football and yoga are not as strange as they may seem on the surface. Run an internet search with the two words and plenty of videos and instructional guides pop up. Stretching is an enormously necessary part of all sports for fitness reasons and yoga will, perhaps, open up a bit more.

Herring said Tift head football coach Noel Dean approached her with the idea to lead this series of yoga sessions.

Dean sees all of these benefits and more for his Blue Devils players. He cited the flexibility benefits, as well as the mental benefits, “Finding an inner peace” being among them.

As for how everything came together, he said “I wanted to bring in a different atmosphere. Yoga is an example of something that many players may not be familiar with, or have never had the opportunity to seek out. “Lifelong learners,” he said.

The Jan. 18 yoga session was Tift football’s second. Dean is already very appreciative of what Herring is doing with the players.

“Sarah is amazing with these kids,” he said. “She does a great job.”

For those more accustomed to the strength of football, that will be coming, too, this spring. Dean said a regional powerlifting meet is scheduled for March 4. Tift will be one of five state hosts. “It’s going to be a big day,” he said.