Scrimmages to test Bulldogs’ young gridders Thursday
Preparation for Ramona High School football team’s game against St. Augustine on Aug. 28 includes scrimmages Aug. 20 that will be three-way affairs with the Ramona, Granite Hills and Mira Mesa teams taking turns during the varsity, junior varsity and freshman games.
“I’m just hoping that we’ll be ready to go in game one,” said head coach Damon Baldwin. “Overall we are a very young team.”
The Bulldog football team began practice Aug. 5 with a three-day camp that week and a full week of practice the following week.
The only returning offensive starter is quarterback Marco Cobian. Eight of Ramona’s 2014 offensive starters were seniors. Current senior Oscar Reyes, an all-league tackle and guard last year as well as a defensive end, tore his anterior cruciate ligament during the spring and the other all-league lineman expected to return has chosen to focus on personal circumstances rather than football.
Some of the 2015 expected starters saw some action as reserves. Keyno Crichlow, who was a backup tight end last year, has been moved to tailback.
“The two impact players on the team are Keyno Crichlow and Marco Cobian,” Baldwin said. “The other two impact players were the two linemen no longer here.”
Three of Ramona’s defensive starters will return to the team if pre-season injuries can be avoided, and two other defenders saw significant playing time in 2014.
“The entire secondary is new,” Baldwin said. “Pretty much we’re a new team for the most part. I love the young kids that we have. We’ve got some great young talent. They’re just young.”
That includes six sophomores on the varsity who played freshman football last year but have no varsity experience as well as players who spent 2014 on the junior varsity squad.
“Varsity football is a huge jump from JV and freshman,” Baldwin said.
On Jan. 21 the CIF Board of Managers unanimously approved a new bylaw limiting full-contact football practice to two days a week and no more than 90 minutes in one day.
“We don’t really know how good we are yet because we’ve only been able to hit a few times,” Baldwin said.
Thursday’s freshman scrimmage has a 3:30 p.m. start time, the junior varsity scrimmage will likely begin at 5, and the inter-team varsity practice is expected to commence between 6:45 and 7. All are at home.