BLUE STREAKS OPEN WITH A ROAD TEST
Saratoga Springs varsity football travels to Niskayuna tonight
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. » After two weeks of practice, a scrimmage and plenty of conditioning Saratoga Springs opens its varsity football season Friday at Niskayuna. Kickoff is scheduled for 7 p.m. Blue Streaks coach Terry Jones said his team has been working hard since they got here to become a strong unit.
“We have certainly progressed here over the last two and a half weeks and we continue to get better,” Jones said. “We will need to continue to improve each week because the AAs are a really tough schedule. We feel really good about our skill positions, our wide outs, our backs, our quarterbacks and our O-line is getting better on offense. Defensively, we feel really good about our secondary, we have some good experience coming back at our linebacker position and defensively we are getting better up front, we are just looking for a little more depth with our D linemen and we are pretty happy with our kicking game so far.”
The Blue Streaks went through a rough stretch last season, going 3-5 in an injury plagued year that saw the team’s depth depleted.
Jones said this year will be different.
“Last year, we had one quarterback; we had no depth at quarterback position,” Jones said. “This year we have two kids and we feel pretty good with our depth and our numbers at wide receivers and our backs positions. We have guys who were in the trenches last year, guys who were in games last year and got experience and that is going to put you ahead of where we were this time last year.
“Last year, we had one returning starter and we certainly have more than that this year. That is not to say we don’t have work to do, we do and the guys are doing it every day, but we feel we are further ahead right now than we were
this time last year.”
Either Jake Williams or Wes Eglintine will start for the Blue Streaks at quarterback.
Saratoga Springs had a scrimmage last Saturday against Schalmont. While it gave the team the chance to see parts of what was working for them, it didn’t give them the full picture.
“We scrimmage, but per state rules, in scrimmages there is no live kicking, so other than against ourselves we haven’t gone live kickoffs, kickoff return, punt, punt return, PAT, PAT block and they are all vital parts of the game,” Jones said. “There is always that question mark of how kids are going to react and how they are going to handle it against an opponent. Where we answer some of those questions, when you scrimmage, with offense and defense, but know you are talking a whole element of the game, special teams, that you don’t do until that first game. I understand it, but there aren’t very many other sports where you ask kids to go in and do something that they have not been able to do in a scrimmage beforehand. There are a lot of questions you can’t answer until you get into the game.”
Saratoga Springs and Niskayuna are different teams than they were last year. Jones said it should be a better competition.
“It is certainly two improved teams over last year, us and Niskayuna,” Jones said. “Niskayuna has got a lot of juniors playing and they are improved over last year. They are a bit of a wild card because they have a new head coach, but he played at Niskayuna and we kind of have an idea what we are going to see, but you never know what kind of wrinkles or different things they may throw in whenever they have a new head coach.”
Jones said his team is ready to play and know they have a tough season ahead.
“They are excited to get going and they are working hard out here and we are going to have to,” Jones said. “The AAs are the top classification in the state and there are some great teams here in the AAs and we are going to be challenged week in and week out and it starts Friday night.”