Football notes from Millard's summer camp
The 2010 high school football season is a little over a month away, and the Deseret News is already hitting the ground running gearing up for our expansive previews on every team in the state.
Earlier this week I dropped in on Millard’s camp and spoke with coaches from Gunnison, North Sevier, Emery, Enterprise, Millard and Beaver about the upcoming season. Each schools individual team preview will be published on our website next month, but here’s a few tidbits from each team.
GUNNISON — Manti graduate Yori Ludvigson is taking over the program and has already raised expectations about the upcoming season despite just one win last year. He’s assembled a staff of some quality assistants as well with Andy Moysh and Shane Knudsen. The Bulldogs will still be a very, very young team this year. They’ll likely start four sophomores and one junior on the offensive line. It’s still up for grabs who they’ll be protecting in the Fly offense as Nick Roberts and Tanner Fielding are in the midst of a QB battle. Defensively, sophomore Colton Caldwell has had an exception camp at safety and so has sophomore defensive end Braden Harris.
NORTH SEVIER — The Wolves graduated 25 seniors, and with only 12 senior this year they’ll be very young. Coach Ryan Higgs seems optimistic nonetheless. North Sevier took a major blow on Tuesday when running back Frank Crabb went down with a shoulder injury. He injured the same shoulder at Millard’s camp last year and had to have season-ending surgery. If he can’t go that puts more pressure on Chase Argyle at running back. Two other juniors, Reed Udy and Dillon Mecham, could see increased playing time as well. Defensively, the coaching staff has been pleased with what they’ve seen so far at Millard’s camp.
EMERY – It’s only July, but Jim Jones thinks the Spartans can be pretty good. He loves his skill position players, and if the offensive line comes around they should be pretty good. Receivers Kashe Potter and Nick Stoddard could end up being two of the best wide outs in 3A, and Taylor Cox and Colton Fasselin make a solid running back tandem. Cody Jones is getting the starting nod at QB after Emery’s first choice quarterback decided to focus just on baseball. Defensively, Emery returns all four starting linebackers and it is clearly one of the teams to beat in Region 12. Jones believes his team has gotten off to a bit of a slow start at the Millard camp, but with kids from so many different communities it’s a fairly common problem early in the summer.
ENTERPRISE – Coach Barry Jones couldn’t stop raving about his four-year starting quarterback Slade Moyle. He’s a tremendous athlete and is poised for a big year. Jones is convinced if he was bigger he could be a D1 type of player at the next level. Overall, Jones has been pleasantly surprised by how well his team is doing at Millard’s weeklong camp. The participation numbers are pretty high as well. With three returning starters on the offensive line, Moyle should get plenty of protection.
MILLARD – Coach Marshall Sheriff admits he was pretty nervous about the 2010 season, but that’s changed this week. He’s been pleasant surprised by all aspects of his team and can’t wait for Aug. 20 to roll around. The Eagles have a fair number of returning starters, including at quarterback Nate Robison. Sheriff wishes Robison was a bit bigger, but he’s a decent playmaker. The key for Millard is sophomore running back Jesse Rhodes and junior running back Pancho Alcala. If they get going this year, Millard will be tough. That won’t necessarily be easy with an undersized offensive line.
BEAVER – The Beavers will be about as talented as last year’s team, but coach Steve Hutchings is counting on this year’s team to be mentally tougher so they can win a few more close ball games. Beaver’s strength will be at offensive line with Bo Fotheringham, Ryker Woolsey and Seth Myers all returning starters. Fotheringham is hurt right now and not participating in camp, but he’s with his teammates and should be ready to go by the start of the season. Overall, Beaver only has eight seniors and they’ll rely heavily on underclassmen.