The Team First Football Camp is complete, first day of practice
looms
Hollister
At the conclusion of Saturday’s Team First Football Camp in Hollister, San Benito head coach Chris Cameron spoke in rather plain-and-simple terms.
With the camp more or less acting as a midway point – from spring practices in May to the official start of the 2008 season in August – Cameron stressed the importance of the next 23 days of the offseason.
“We’ll only need to see by the fourth or fifth sprint as to who’s been working the last three weeks,” Cameron said.
And with that, with just a handful of days remaining before the first football practice at San Benito High School, players dispersed in collective exhaustion after two days of drills that provided an offseason look at things to come.
“We made some good improvements but we’re still light-years to go,” Cameron said. “I think we improved all the way around because we got a lot of time in, but we didn’t have enough teaching time and that’s what we need.
“You can get better a little bit through scrimmages and stuff like that but when its play after play after play, you don’t really have the chance to teach. That’s what we need to be able to do.”
The camp, which brought together five other area teams, including St. Francis of Watsonville, Lincoln, Willow Glen, North Salinas and Gunderson, concluded with an 11-on-11 offensive/defensive scrimmage.
In their first set, Hollister’s D battled St. Francis’ attack, and the Haybalers stuffed the Watsonville school when Robby Sanchez recorded a sack and Spencer Brann followed with a forced fumble.
On offense, Niko Hebert completed an eight-yard rush against Lincoln’s defense, while the offensive highlight came one series later when quarterback Kyle Vallejo connected on an 18-yard pass to Evan McFadden to end the varsity’s day.
The quarterback spot has yet to be determined, said offensive coordinator Bryan Smith, who is looking at Vallejo and Trevor Fabing for the position.
“They’re both battling it out pretty good. They’ve both improved so much since last year,” Smith said. “They’re both good kids and both have a tremendous work ethic.”
Smith, who will still employ the Wing-T offense, plans to pass more this season. After recent 7-on-7 drills led to a recorded 25 dropped balls over a two-week period – “Way too many for the offense and with what we’re trying to do,” Smith said – he noted the team’s improvement in catching the ball at the Team First camp.
“From day one in spring ball, we’ve been working on formations all the way up to different pass plays, new pass plays, and passing the ball more,” Smith said. “We’re trying to throw the ball a bit more than we were last year and spread the guys out, so we we’re working to catch the ball.”
North Salinas was the only other team from the Tri-County Athletic League present Saturday, and the Vikings impressed defensive coordinator Tod Thatcher.
“They’ve got some big, physical strong kids and they’ve got some guys that can run pretty good,” Thatcher said. “They’re gonna give us all we can handle again.”
The Vikings’ speed, especially in the backfield, was perhaps the most obvious standout regarding other squads Saturday. North Salinas, either in 11-on-11 situations or in smaller offensive drills, were running sweeps with ease, constantly getting to the outside corner for a significant gain.
Thatcher noted the impressive play of Robby Sanchez as well on defense.
First practice for the ‘Balers is Aug. 6.
Note:
S.B. frosh Eddie Perez broke a 30-yard touchdown run during the 11-on-11 Saturday, the lone score of the day.
