Practice, practice and more practice. The fall sports season ended in December with the football team securing a record of 3-8, the volleyball team finishing 21-13 overall with a semifinal loss in the OVC tournament and the soccer team going 7-10-4 overall and 5-3-2 in OVC play. Regardless of how the teams did last fall, Southeast Missouri State University's football, volleyball and soccer programs have all gotten a fresh start this year with the beginning of their spring practice sessions.

The spring season is used to help develop the teams' talent for the upcoming season.

"We try to establish a two-deep at every position, which is also important," Southeast football coach Tony Samuel said. "A lot of positions are won in the spring."

The first-string quarterback is one of the positions open at the moment. Junior Kyle Snyder was set to be the quarterback last year, but due to injury was replaced by eventual OVC Freshman of the Year Scott Lathrop. Blake Jackson is in the mix as well.

Southeast's volleyball team also works on adding experience to its roster.

"We get a little bit more individualized in the first part of spring," Southeast volleyball coach Julie Yankus said. "So we have small groups of about five people at a time, we can really work on individual skill set at that time."

Southeast volleyball hosted a spring tournament on April 6, which they won. The Redhawks won all three of their matches in the tournament, defeating Southern Indiana, University of Missouri-St. Louis and Murray State.

"All volleyball, well, Division I programs, are allowed four different play dates," Yankus said. "Generally, you stay close to home, keep it local just for the expense and time that it takes to do those tournaments. And they're very informal, so we'll play all levels."

Volleyball only is allowed to play against other teams on four different dates throughout the spring. Soccer follows the same NCAA protocol, but is allowed to play on five different dates. The teams can play as many games as they want to on those particular days.

"It's just to get experience for the players that didn't play so much or redshirted, just to get some games in," Southeast associate head soccer coach Paul Nelson said. "I mean, they're not enough. Five games are just not enough."

Soccer has had three games this spring. The team traveled to Jonesboro, Ark., where they tied 2-2 to Arkansas State on April 5. The team hosted UMSL and tied 0-0 on April 11. The team lost 4-0 to Austin Peay on Friday.

The football team is required to go over safety procedures in the spring due to the physicality of the game.

"Well, spring ball, we do a lot more contact, a lot more tackles, all the safety techniques that we can't do in the fall going into the season," Samuel said. "There's certain safety measures in tackling."

During the fall, the football team has to prepare for games each week. Since Southeast cannot play other teams in the spring, football holds scrimmages -- against itself. Southeast's defense faces its offense. The first scrimmage was held on April 13 and there was another on Saturday. The team's annual spring game will be at noon Saturday at Houck Stadium.

Volleyball also does not have to worry about preparing for games now that its spring tournament is over.

"We work on the individual, changing it," Yankus said. "Where in the fall, almost every practice is geared towards that next game. We're doing more game preparation and scouting of opponents of stuff in the fall, whereas now it's just focus on ourselves and focus on what we can improve on."

Once fall semester commences, fall sports will once again be in season. The football team's first game is against Southeastern Louisiana on Aug. 29 in Hammond, La. The volleyball and soccer teams' schedules have not been released.