Warrior Football Fans:

Last night we had our opening scrimmage against Hamilton High School.  It was a 120 play scrimmage that was ran in sets of 10.  This was a great opportunity for us to play one of the best programs in the state, and I think we benefited greatly from it.  My initial thoughts on the game were that we played very hard at times, but still need to focus on the little things.  For example, we had a few false starts early in the game, and a holding penalty that negated a long touchdown pass.  Those are the type of things that must get fixed before next Friday night. The good thing is that the players are well aware of this, and are communicating this to one another to ensure that it gets taken care of.  I saw a glimpse of what our team has the potential to become last night, and that is a tight nit group of young men who want to play hard for one another.  They are slowly buying into this concept and as they start to figure it out, they will be very competitive on Friday nights.

Offensively in the scrimmage I thought we looked very good at times.  We improved on our assignments from the last scrimmage, and did a sufficient job of executing.  We still had some missed assignments and some technical things have to get fixed.  This will come with time and practice, which, unfortunately, we don’t have a lot of.  Overall, I thought we ran the ball pretty well.  The O-Line started to get in rhythm as the night went on, and our backs (Brian and Jake) ran very well.  They were patient and ran downhill.  That is the one thing we have been stressing to them, and anyone else with the ball, and that is to run downhill, get what you can, and secure the football.  Speaking of securing the ball, we had too many footballs on the ground on our pitches.  This will get taken care of.  In the passing game, our QB’s must do a better job of doing what they are coached to do.  They both understand the concept and know what to do, it just has to transfer onto the playing field now.  For example, on our quick passes, the ball is not coming out fast enough and the WR’s are open.  On the flipside, we had some balls dropped out there as well.  The passing game is about one thing, confidence.  Once the QB’s and WR’s are confident in their abilities and learn to trust one another, the passing game will be a viable part of our offense. 

Defensively, I thought the Warriors played well for the most part.  There are so many little things that go into playing defense and with a lack of experience out there, it will take a bunch of tough minded players to execute what they are being coached to do.  I’ve seen this defense run correctly (see the mid ‘90 teams), and it is very tough to run against and beat when all 11 guys are doing there job.  For the most part, I thought the DL played well.  They still need to work on there steps and technique, but I would like to see more of a motor out of them.  This will come with confidence.  The more confident they are, the faster they will play.  If there was a downfall last night defensively, I would have to say it was the outside linebacker position.  Now, in their defense, it is the toughest position to play on our defense.  It takes a disciplined player to play the position because they have to play a combination of linebacker and defensive line, which is not easy for a high school player to do. With practice and game planning, I expect a better performance next Friday, and knowing the guys that play that spot, they will do much better. 

The scrimmage served its purpose and allowed us to take a good look at some guys in certain spots.  As the early part of the season moves on, it’s good to see the support from the fans.  As a former player, there is nothing better than to hear a crowd of people cheer for your team.  Some of the seniors are starting to find out what it is to be a Westwood Warrior, and the quicker that happens, the better we are going to be. The tricky part now is we have to take a look at the film and decide who is going to be playing next Friday at Gilbert. 

War Eagle!

-Coach Mendez