The Montezuma-Cortez and Dolores High School football teams met at Panther Stadium on Wednesday for a friendly seven-on-seven contest.
Both squads have been working on different things throughout the summer, and they used the competition as another way to prepare for the upcoming season.
“We’re just introducing our new offense and getting the kids out here and working,” said M-CHS head coach Scott Conklin. “We’ve been doing weights and speed and agility every night and playing a lot of seven [on seven] intrasquad, but this is the first time we’ve gotten to meet up with these guys.”
The non-contact, passing-only scrimmage allowed both teams to work on route running, catching, passing and passing defense.
It also allowed the coaches to shuffle players around to get a better idea of where they may fit come the regular season.
“We’re looking at everybody,” said Dolores head coach Chris Trusler. “We’re looking to see who’s going to give one-hundred percent effort, who’s going to run proper routes, who still needs work catching the ball or running a route and who can defend a receiver and who can’t. It’s a great time when these guys can go against somebody other than one of their teammates.”
“We’re just moving kids around at positions, because a lot of them are just finishing up all kinds of different camps and stuff,” Conklin said of his team. “So we’re still moving them around and looking at them.”
When it came down to the quarterback position, Conklin slyly declined to toss any names in to the conversation of who he thinks may end up under center this fall.
“You can’t say because you never know who’s going to show up on August 15,” he said. “But right now we’ve got it down to two.”
Trusler was more straightforward when it came to the Bears’ quarterback competition.
“We’re still looking,” he prefaced. “But right now Logan Fuller has gotten a lot of repetitions over the summer. He was our backup quarterback last year, so today our No. 1 QB will be Logan Fuller.”
The teams can officially begin practice on Monday, August 15, and the Panthers open the 2016 season just 11 days later – on Friday, August 26 – in an away game against Grand County High School in Moab, Utah.
Dolores will start the season with a scrimmage against Dove Creek on the 26th before hosting its first official contest against Hotchkiss High School on Friday, September 2.
