RICHMOND, Ky. - Coach Roy Kidd's Eastern Kentucky University Colonel football team has begun spring drills, working toward the annual Maroon-White Spring Football Game set for April 15 at 6:00 p.m. at Roy Kidd Stadium.

Kidd and his staff will welcome back 14 starters among 35 lettermen for the 2000 season, as the Colonels hope to improve upon last year's 7-4 overall record and 4-3 mark inside OVC play.

"The enthusiasm and work ethic of this group of players, beginning way back in our winter conditioning program, has been tremendous," said Kidd, who will be beginning his 37^th year as head coach at his alma mater this season.

"As always, our goal in spring practice is to work on the basic fundamentals of blocking and tackling and to see if we can get as many "reps" (repetitions) as possible in for our younger players," said Kidd. "We feel we have a good blend of older, more experienced athletes to go along with several new players that will be asked to step and contribute this year."

As drills began Monday without pads for two days, Kidd was extremely pleased with the way his three quarterbacks - seniors Waylon Chapman and Chad Collins and redshirt freshman Shedrick Wright - threw the football.

"Yesterday (Tuesday), Wright was 27-32 with four passes dropped, Collins was 31-37 and Chapman was 30-41 with nine drops. It is obvious to me that this will be one of our strengths this year, especially considering our top five receivers are also back from last year's team," said Kidd.

Kidd was also pleased that the team's overall speed had greatly improved since the addition of EKU's new strength and conditioning coach last June.

"We timed our kids on the hardwood because of the bad weather outside and we still had 46 out of 70 players that ran a 40-yard dash between 4.3 and 4.9 seconds. That's awfully impressive at this point of our workouts," Kidd said.

"We do have a few young kids, especially in our offensive line, that need to lose a little weight and continue to work on their quickness. But we feel, in time, that these players will mature and grow up and come on and help us," Kidd added.

Starters returning this year for the Colonels include Chapman, tailback Corey Crume, fullback Chad Culver, wide receivers Tyrone Browning and Alex Bannister and linemen Lewis Diaz and Brett O'Buck on offense. Defensively, ends Shorty Combs and Nick Hill, linebackers Nick Sullivan and Adam Rader and defensive backs Yeremiah Bell, J.D. Jewell and Kris Nevels return as starters from last season's team.