With each day that the Southside High School Panthers hit the football field, they’re not only looking to improve physically, but mentally as well.

The Panthers kicked off spring football practices earlier this week, and Southside head football coach Bertrum Crum said on Thursday that the first few days have been just as much about mental preparedness as they have been about physical preparedness.

“The main thing we want the kids to understand is focus,” Crum said. “We have a motto this year that we’re trying to implement — ‘Get your mind right, and your body will follow.’ In every single thing we do, we want to stay focused, and it’ll help eliminate a lot of the mistakes.”

The Panthers have been practicing in shorts, t-shirts and helmets for the first few days, and Crum hopes to suit up in full pads on Monday.

Southside has been working on the fundamentals in the opening week, and Crum said it just feels good to start his first spring practices as head coach of his alma mater, as he missed last spring because he wasn’t hired until July 2011.

“It feels real good. It feels like just yesterday that I got the call to come up here (and become head coach),” Crum said. “I’m headed into my first spring here at Southside and I’m extremely excited about it. A lot of the kids, this is really their second opportunity to play because I know a lot of the kids that played for me last year hadn’t played any since they were at the middle school, so this was their first experience with the high school. I’m really anxious to see how they’re going to react the second go round. We’ve got pretty much the whole team coming back, so we’re excited.”

Southside is preparing for its spring game at Central-Tuscaloosa High School on May 18 at 2 p.m.

The Panthers are also preparing for a new era that will see them drop down from Class 4A to Class 3A this season.

Crum isn’t worried, and sees the move as a good opportunity, and challenge, for the Panthers.

“The first thing that jumps out in most people’s minds is how far we’ve got to travel, but I look at it glass half full. We’re just as far from them as they are from us, so it ain’t like the road goes only one way,” Crum said. “We’re excited about the idea of going down to 3A. I think there’s a football-rich tradition with some of the schools and I think it’s going to be a good challenge for us. A lot of people talk about the difference between 4A and 3A and how the kids are smaller, but you’ve got to be in better condition, I think, at the 3A level.”