LANCASTER ― Ask any high school football player, and they will tell you they look forward to the first scrimmage.
For starters, they had worked all off-season, gone through the daily grind of summer workouts, and played in 7-on-7 passing scrimmages. When practice officially began on Aug. 1, they had hit each other.
On Friday, Aug. 8, the Lancaster football team was finally able to go against someone other than themselves when they hosted Independence in a scrimmage at Fulton Field.
“I was nice to go against somebody else and hit other people besides your teammates,” junior running back Jahmeir Gordon said. “It gives you a chance to see where you stack up. I was proud of all our guys. They were out there hitting people, making things happen, and doing what we needed to do to improve.”
Lancaster’s first team looked solid on both sides of the ball, and Lancaster head coach Bryan Schoonover liked what he saw out of that group.
“Your first scrimmage is always controlled, and it allows you to go out and have a practice to see how you are competing, if things are matching up, and see where guys are,” Schoonover said. “We have a long way to go to get where we want to be, but I was happy with our guys and them coming out and playing with energy. We made some mistakes, but I thought the guys in the first unit were good. We just need to build as much depth as we can.”
Scrimmages can be tricky at times because of opposing coaches being in the stands. How much of your good stuff do you want to run to give them a leg up, as far as scouting you?
“There are two schools of thought on that,” Schoonover said. “Some people run everything and don’t care, and some hold back. We ran stuff we felt like we needed reps on. We wanted to see it on tape and figure out why certain plays weren’t working and why certain plays worked well. That was kind of our thought process tonight. We want to continue to get better and keep improving.”
The biggest thing Schoonover was looking at was which players were up to the task, as far as seeing each player’s strengths and weaknesses.
“You try to find out who is going to play and who is not,” Schoonover said. “We talked to the team about the only thing that matters is the play that you are in. Focusing on the play at hand, doing your job to the best of your ability, being able to trust your training, and then executing that training. Is each unit doing its job and doing it together at the same time?
The Gales will continue to practice before holding their final scrimmage against St. Charles at 6 p.m., Thursday, Aug. 14, at Fulton Field. The season opener is at Hilliard Darby on Aug. 22.
Tom Wilson is a sports reporter for the Lancaster Eagle-Gazette. Contact him at 740-689-5150 or via email at twilson@gannett.com for comments or story tips. Follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter twil2323.
This article originally appeared on Lancaster Eagle-Gazette: Heading in the right direction: Lancaster has solid first scrimmage against Independence
Reporting by Tom Wilson, Lancaster Eagle-Gazette / Lancaster Eagle-Gazette
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
