By Tiffany L. Rehbein
The Havre Blue Pony football scrimmage still plans to be fan-pleasing but coaches plan to use it as more of an evaluation tool, head coach Dan Olson said.
The annual Blue and White scrimmage will kick-off at 6 p.m. tonight at Blue Pony Stadium with a little different look than previous years. The Ponies finished 7-1 in Central A conference action last year.
Tonight at 6 p.m., the freshmen squad, under the experienced eyes of Coaches Kim Kirby and Scott Hellman, will hold its own scrimmmage that will run until 6:30.
They will make way for the junior varsity squad who will also run the field for about half-an-hour. At 7 p.m., the varsity team will step forward.
The No. 1 Blue Pony offense will run 15 plays against the No. 2 defense, Olson said. The next 15 plays will be run with the No. 2 offense taking on the No. 1 defense.
This year we need to work more on our timing and our passing game, Olson said. Running the scrimmage this way will hopefully straighten out some assignment problems in the running game.
Rather than a live, game-type scrimmage the coaches plan to use this setup in order to see many players playing at one time.
This year we need to get a little more out of it, Olson said. Were going to run it more as an evaluation-type scrimmage. Overall we need to look at some different areas on the field.
Although not all positions have been filled, the Blue Pony staff plans on rotating some positions. The left tackle cornerback position will both run two players in the No. 1 offense.
It will still be fun for the fans to watch, Olson said. We just need to evaluate to get a good look at everyone.
The scrimmage will pave the way to the opening season match-up against Glasgow, Friday, Sept. 3, at 7:30 p.m. at Blue Pony Stadium.
