8/6/2002 - Football
Navy Football Press Conference Day 1, Practice 2
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Junior Free Safety Eli Sanders (Hartsville, Tenn.)
Q. What are your thoughts about the start of practice and the changes attitude wise and physically too for the guys that came back.
A. It?s great to be back out here, everybody is looking forward to practice and getting in here and turning this thing around. Everybody is working hard and doing a great job both physically and mentally.
Q. What did you try and do in the offseason to try and prepare yourself?
A. A lot of lifting and a lot of running. I really tried to cut down my weight so I could be a little faster. I worked hard every day; I tried to be consistent with it.
Q. How much weight did you drop?
A. I only dropped five pounds, but that was pretty good. They just wanted me to get a little tuned up.
Q. Was this a program that Coach Brass had for you?
A. Yes sir
Q. Where did you spend your summer months?
A. The first four weeks I was out in San Diego on cruise. It was kind of hard to lift on the ship, but they had a little weight room so I got a little done. But when I got off and got on land, I hit the road running. The next four weeks I spent here taking summer school and working out every day.
Q. Did you go home at all?
A. Yes sir, I went home for two weeks after summer school.
Q. What was the name of the ship you were on, what kind of ship was it?
A. I was on the USS John Paul Jones; it is a guided missile destroyer for the Navy.
Q. What kind of duties would you have on a typical day?
A. They would give us a running mate and we would follow them around and learn what their job was. There are so many different jobs on a ship, we just tried to go around each day and learn a different one.
Q. What is your major?
A. Chemistry
Q. How did you end up here?
A. It?s kind of a long story, but I really didn?t know much about this place until the summer before my senior year. My high school football coach told me about it and I started applying. It took a long while, lot of applications and interviews, but I finally got accepted. This was the only place I went for, because I had a real good feeling that I would get it, and I got in.
Q. Did you recruit the Naval Academy more or less?
A. I had to put my name out there; I sent some film to the coaches. I knew I was going to play when I got here. I had to initiate it, but once I did they talked to me.
Q. But this was the only school you applied to?
A. This is it
Q. You were that confident
A. Yes sir
Q. What kind of GPA did you have in high school, what kind of class standing?
A. I was number four in my class out of 100. Real small school.
Q. Where in Tennessee is Hartsville?
A. Right around Nashville. It is a real small rural area. It is a very small town; it is the smallest county in Tennessee actually.
Q. Did you have any family ties to the Naval Academy or the Service?
A. I had an uncle who was in the Navy, but besides that not really
Q. Coming out of a county that small, was there any kids that you knew that might have gone to a Service Academy?
A. Yes sir, a guy who played for my high school football coach, he?s real close with my coach. We stay pretty tight down there, I mean it?s a real small town, everybody knows everybody, and he went to West Point. He graduated; he is probably eight years older than I am. He came and talked to me about it.
Q. Why did you choose Navy?
A. Actually because, maybe if my coach would have told me Army first thing that is probably where I would have went, but I am so glad he said Navy first because I love it here.
Q. What is your coaches name
A. Coach Clint Satterfield
Q. The name Eli, it?s a Southern name, is there a particular meaning just beyond your parents liking it.
A. It comes from the Bible.
Q. Concerning football, you really made your mark in spring practice. What do you think set yourself apart.
A. I just came out, I mean everybody was fired up, working and competing, it?s a friendly competition, nobody is getting down anybody?s throat, we are all teammates, but I came out and said, ?hey, I am going to give it everything I got," and I knew that would be enough and I just have to keep that, be consistent.
Q. Do you fit well in this defense, does Coach Green have a style that you really like?
A. Yes sir, he?s a great coach and does a great job teaching us. I am just excited he?s my coach, I think I am going to become a better DB because of him.
Q. What specifically gives you that feeling?
A. Just all the different drills we do, I mean he works us. He will not let you slip up one bit; he?s on us. Great coach.
Q. Do you see more aggressiveness in the secondary right now?
A. Oh yes sir, no doubt.
