Roadrunners have a need for speed
NMSD hoping to develop the quickness to match its good size in tough 6-man district
For a 6-man football team, the New Mexico School for the Deaf Roadrunners do a nice impression of an 11-man squad. Big is beautiful in the 11-man game, and NMSD certainly has some size. Take sophomore quarterback Devon Thompson, for example. The 6-foot-6, 230-pound quarterback needed two, three and sometimes four Vaughn Eagles to tackle him during Thursday’s scrimmage at NMSD — an asset when only six defenders are on the field. Then there’s 5-11, 190-pound Eloy Garcia, a tight end who can rumble down field with a couple of tacklers all over him.
But 6-man football is about speed, and the Roadrunners are working on that quality. They looked a step slow against the smaller, quicker Eagles, and NMSD paid the price for that in a 55-6 result that means nothing in the record book.
“We need to develop it better, but I think we’re getting there,” Garcia said.
That was just one of several items NMSD head coach James Litchfield III has for the Roadrunners to work on in preparation for their season opener against Animas on Sept. 2. In 2015, the young, inexperienced and slow Roadrunners struggled to an 0-7 mark, and no District 1 game was closer than the 66-12 district finale against state runner-up Lake Arthur.
This season, NMSD is a sophomore-dominated team with just one senior, but it is dealing with a short roster again. Only eight players dressed out for the scrimmage, while a pair of potential players have yet to participate in the requisite number of practices (five) to become eligible to play.
“It’s a small team,” Litchfield said. “We don’t have enough really to scrimmage against each other, so taking advantage of teams coming to scrimmage really helps, as far as negotiating where they are going to be placed this year.”
The Roadrunners had a few promising drives, but a bad play or a poor decision by Thompson short-circuited them. On defense, though, they struggled to tackle and to chase ball carriers, which often led to long gains for the Eagles.
“I’m trying to teach them about time management,” Litchfield said. “Quarterbacks have to control the ball. They can’t take too long [holding on to it]. They have to find the open receivers and not hold onto the ball too long.”
Some of the Roadrunners’ struggles can be attributed to a senior-laden Vaughn team that reached the 6-man semifinals last October and will be a contender again this season.
However, NMSD is also behind the rest of the state in terms of practice time. While most schools began practice Aug. 1, the school couldn’t start until the following week, as students moved into the boarding school for the upcoming year. Where most teams have roughly a dozen practices in by the point, the Roadrunners were at eight.
“It helps that a lot of them were on the team last year,” Litchfield said. “We do need to go through that relearning process, but they are getting there.”
What also is clear with this year’s team is that Thompson will be a big key to NMSD’s success. The sophomore took fourth in the shot put and third in the javelin at the Class 1A state track and field meet in May, so his arm strength is not in question. However, Thompson is making the conversion from tight end to the primary signal caller, and that might take some adjustment time.
“Coach noticed that I was a good quarterback, but he’s got a lot of things that he’s making sure I work on,” Thompson said. “I just got to practice and get a little bit better at the position.”
Garcia will be another handful for defenders at tight end, while Jonathan Garcia and Jacob Stevens will see time at running back, receiver and occasionally at quarterback. Litchfield feels the next two weeks will be important in the Roadrunners’ development, as they have an unexpected two-week break
before opening the 2016 season.
The scheduled season opener against Corona next week was canceled because Corona could not get enough players to field a team. That opens up another day to practice, which can only help.
“I see them moving [the ball] on offense,” Litchfield said. “They are a little bit better than they were at the end of last year. We got to work on defense now, but that is the next challenge.”
The Roadrunners hope they can set a tone by tackling that challenge quickly.