City teams’ scrimmage gives glimpse of fall football
7-on-7s provide glimpse of 2015 football season
On the hottest day of the year in Yuma, with temperatures as high as 113 degrees, the area high schools participated in 7-on-7 scrimmages Wednesday.
Yuma High was in Brawley, Calif., for a similar event Tuesday, and the Criminals will make it three days in a row today.
“This is rough,” Yuma High coach Curt Weber said. “All of a sudden, we catch the heat wave. But it’s fine, they’re young.”
Yuma Catholic hosted its annual summer event of 7-on-7s, which eliminates the offensive and defensive lines for each team, besides the center on offense. Cibola, Kofa, Yuma High, Gila Ridge, El Centro and Southwest (El Centro, Calif.) joined the Shamrocks for the event, which pitted three separate pairs of teams going against each other in a rotation, while one of the seven teams took a break.
The rules are simple: The offensive team starts at the 35-yard line, has three chances to get a first down of 15 yards; after that, the offense has four downs to score a touchdown from 20 yards away. And there’s no tackling.
“It’s not a very realistic form of football without the linemen, but at this point you get to work on a few things and you get to evaluate your kids and see who’s going to compete, who’s going to push themselves, who’s going to work hard, who’s going to take plays off,” Yuma Catholic coach Rhett Stallworth said.
The linemen were not excluded, though. At the grass field adjacent to Ricky Gwynn Stadium, the hosses participated in “strong-man events,” which included “tire pushes, tire flips and tug-ofwars,” Stallworth said.
Stallworth and the Shamrocks won the 2014 AIA Division V State Championship, and Wednesday represented one of the first steps toward making a run at back-to-back-to-back titles, and four in five years.
“We’ve got a lot of work ahead of us,” Stallworth said. “State titles are hard to come by. We’re definitely not the favorites to win it this year. We don’t have any attitude other than we’re going to do everything we can to win one.”
Stallworth’s nephew, Stetson Stallworth, got his first action against another team Wednesday. The senior quarterback transferred from Bishop Gorman in Las Vegas, and is locked in a “little battle at quarterback right now” with junior James Stover, Stallworth said.
“They’re both going to be on the field somewhere,” Stallworth said. “They both can play other spots, so whoever doesn’t get it is going to play elsewhere and be the backup. If something happens, God forbid,
if somebody gets hurt or whatever, we’ve got two quality quarterbacks.”
One of the two will have the task of replacing record-setting quarterback Jagan Cleary, who threw 51 touchdowns and more than 3,500 yards for the undefeated Shamrocks last season.
Some potential bad news befell Kofa. After completing a touchdown pass in the first scrimmage of the day, returning starter Tanner Peterson fell to the ground clutching his shoulder and did not participate the rest of the day.
Kofa coach Ben Franz declined to comment on the injury.
Franz was pleased with the performance of his young team, particularly the juniors who played on varsity as sophomores in 2014.
“We’re really starting to see the work we put in last season pay off,” Franz said. “I couldn’t be happier with the way my guys are going out there and sticking their noses into plays and being aggressive with it.”
Gila Ridge junior quarterback Cameron Scudder impressed Hawks coach Tyler Kosel. Kosel said Scudder is one of a few options at starting quar-
terback, but did like to see Scudder — and the rest of the team — play against different teams and schemes for this first time this summer.
Like Kosel, Cibola coach Lucky Arvizo said the 7-on7s are a good opportunity to evaluate his players for the first time in this setting. He said there is still a lot for the Raiders to work on leading up to the new season, “but it’s a good first step.”
The teams will be working throughout the summer, with a break around Independence Day. Official practices begin July 27.