Warhorses have inter-squad as two-a-day camp ends

Another year of two-a-day practices is in the books for the Devine Warhorse football program. Devine finished last week with a surprise inter-squad scrimmage at Warhorse Stadium. Gonzales comes to town this Thursday, which will mark the first time the Warhorse players compete against someone other than a fellow teammate.
As far as the inter-squad scrimmage, head coach Paul Gomez and his staff used the opportunity to get players on the main playing field, and to get them on video to help evaluate his talent pool.
“The thing that I was most impressed with was that our boys never complained about the masks and it was 106 degrees during competition,” Gomez began saying. “They have adjusted well and I am very proud of them.”
Boy, have they ever had to adjust. Can you imagine not only having to don 25-plus pounds of gear in the H-O-T temperature, but also having to wear a mask while doing so? It cannot be pleasant, but for the players it is undoubtedly worth it.
During the scrimmage, the JV players or bubble players ran scout offense or scout defense to give the varsity kids a look at schemes currently being worked on.
“I think our JV did a good job of executing the offense,” complimented Gomez on the young up-and-comers. “We knew there would be plenty of mistakes but our effort was very good. I think our JV will be very competitive this year. Defensively, they did a good job tackling. We were sound in our coverages and technique, and the defensive front was pretty good.”
Sometimes, when the talent level is a tad bit lopsided, some evaluations can be difficult to make. However, that did not stop Devine’s coaches from finding both positives and areas of need from the glorified workout.
“We all know it’s hard to gauge how good the varsity is based on an inter-squad scrimmage because obviously we are going against our young guys and the intensity of a varsity game just isn’t there,” Gomez elaborated. “What (Offensive Coordinator Coach PJ) Wells and I wanted to see in the scrimmage was execution, focus, and great effort. Offensively, we were very clean. We did not have any fumbles or turnovers. We executed well for the most part and had good chemistry.”
Gomez was also complimentary of his front five expressing the Warhorse “offensive line did a good job with our blocking schemes and I like how they are coming along” and that the skill players such as the backs and receivers “went out there and made plays. I really like our depth at the running back position.”
When evaluating talent, Devine usually puts the best eleven players on the field whether it be offense or defense. An overlooked component to the possibilities of having an average team or an outstanding team can be judged by its leadership and depth chart.
Gomez concluded, “Our seasoned veterans did a great job but it was also good to see our young kids make some great plays. We have three sophomores and three freshmen backing up our starters and they did really well.”
Defense
Coach Gomez also had a few comments regarding Defensive Coordinator George Villa’s unit. “Coach Villa has them all running to the ball after every play. That will help with conditioning, and it keeps their motor running. I think we had good communication in the secondary and up front our defensive line played aggressive and with good technique. Our secondary has good depth so we were able to get everybody on film.”
Batting a 1,000
Warhorse defensive linebacker and offensive slot coach Evan Eads is a perfect 3-for-3 on my assistant Warhorse coaching requests to communicate weekly happenings regarding his position players to the readers of The Devine News.
I have to give him a big shout-out for taking the time to get his particular players well-deserved recognition.
Coach-speak
Eads’s “hit-streak” remains in tack as we move closer to the Warhorses first and only scrimmage this season against Gonzales. Eads commented his “linebackers have a lot of areas to improve, but toughness is not one of them.”
The whole idea behind two-a-days is to improve, in fact, the key behind every practice from the beginning until the end of the season is “to improve.” Whether it is basic footwork, reading keys, learning schemes, improvement should never stall or stop completely until the last down of the last game is played.
The “toughness” Eads mentions is vital to the linebacker position maybe more so than any other position. A linebacker’s job is to read, react, and go “blow something up” to use coach-speak. It is a physical position so being “tough” goes with the job description for being a good linebacker.
Regarding the inter-squad scrimmage this past Friday, Eads elaborated on a few of his players, beginning with “Colin Dishman had a good scrimmage. He read the best.”
In addition, Eads stated, “Buddy Santos has been the vocal leader this summer, he just needs to finish his tackles. Devin Ornelas will have a good year once he gets into football-shape. Robert Ramirez is getting used to the speed of varsity.”
Eads also coaches the offensive slot position and will have a better feel for this group after Thursday’s scrimmage. “The majority of the backfield is new to varsity and it’s promising to see how much improvement is already happening.”
By Jerel Beaty
Staff Writer