Young players learn varsity game speed in three-way scrimmage
By Bill Tamburrino
There is a reason for playing scrimmages, especially when a team is young.
“The guys who played last year knew what to expect and knew what to do. The guys that had not played were a bit awed,” said Stefon Pace, the Ramona High School defensive coordinator coach, when Head Coach Damon Baldwin asked him how he thought the defense reacted in the three-way scrimmage against San Pasqual, San Marcos and Carlsbad high schools last Friday night.
Baldwin had similar remarks about the offense.
“Our main goals were to get out of the scrimmage healthy and to introduce our new varsity players to what game speed is on the varsity. No matter how hard you practice you don’t get a feel for the speed of the game until you play against another team. We looked young and we made some mistakes but none that we can‘t correct. Our guys know what to expect and we know what to work on to get ready for Grossmont High School this Friday,” said Baldwin.
Ramona started the scrimmage against Carlsbad High School.
“We were pretty vanilla on offense and defense against Carlsbad,” Baldwin said. “We didn’t really game plan for the scrimmage and we didn’t try to out-formation them. We just ran our basic offense and defense and didn’t try to counter them like we would in a regular game. They did the same thing.”
Even though Ramona did not spend a lot of time practicing against the option offense that the San Pasqual Eagles run, the coaches noted that the Dawgs defense played well and the offense moved the ball well.
“We played a lot better against San Pasqual. Our first year varsity players adjusted well and there were not as many butterflies to overcome. We only had five offense reps against San Marcos and five defensive reps, and I was pleased with what I saw. Both staffs had seen enough and wanted to get out of the scrimmage healthy,” said Baldwin.
“When you think that you did poorly and you look at the film the next day you usually find out that you did not do as poorly as you thought,” he continued. “The same is true when you think that you did well. When you see the film you find errors that you didn’t see at the scrimmage. We will look at the film and see what we have to work on.”
Ramona will host Grossmont High School Friday, at the RHS Dawg Pound, 1401 Hanson Lane. Varsity kick-off is set for 7 p.m. The junior varsity will kick off at 4:30 p.m.
Last season Grossmont beat Ramona 24-20 in the opener for both teams and went on to post a 6-5-1 record. They upset Mira Mesa in the first round of the playoffs and lost to San Pasqual in the second round.