Two weeks before the spectacle of high school football season officially begins, teams got their first chance at a “test run” on Friday night.
Schools all around Southeast Texas conducted their first scrimmages against actual opponents, giving those schools their first glimpse at game action — albeit in a “controlled” environment.
Coaches said the scrimmages act as a valuable chance to study systems and evaluate position battles, while players were simply eager to put on the pads against a different opponent.
“With the new UIL rules, we’ve been practicing against each other for so long that our kids are just fired up to see someone else,” Vidor head coach Jeff Mathews said of his Pirates squad.
Mathews is referring to the UIL’s new regulations allowing teams to start brief workouts much earlier in the summer. It meant much more practice time before seeing another school in uniform.
Finally, teams were allowed to start scrimmages on Aug. 12.
Vidor hosted Buna on Friday, with the schools playing live action on offense and defense. Special teams consisted of merely a punt without a return.
Mathews said his team has most of its starters in place, but was still evaluating with each snap.
“I want to see who can overcome when something bad happens,” Mathews said. “When you miss a block or when you fumble the ball — who responds?”
In Beaumont, West Brook hosted Port Arthur Memorial, with Bryce Anderson taking over the game early. The four-star safety prospect once again showed his quarterback skill, throwing two touchdown passes in the first half as the Bruins and Titans played a similar format to the scrimmage in Vidor.
West Brook’s former coach, Eric Peevey, was in Orange on Friday preparing for Little Cypress-Mauriceville’s its first scrimmage. LC-M hosted Orangefield, giving Peevey’s Bears a good look at the Slot-T offense that they’ll see in district play.
“It’s a whole different system than anything else you’ll see, so it’s good to get a look at it,” Peevey said of the Bobcats’ offense.
The scrimmage in Orange was a bit more controlled than others around the area, with LC-M and Orangefield trading 12-play drives. Peevey stressed the importance of the exhibition opportunity while installing new offensive and defensive systems at LC-M.
There were other notable scrimmages around the area, including matchups between West Orange-Stark and PN-G, Hamshire-Fannett and Nederland, as well as Bridge City and Lumberton and many more.
For all of those schools, Friday night served as the fans’ first glimpse at their 2021 football team. Entering his first year leading the Bears, Peevey said it was nice put their work on display for the first time.
“You spend so long working at practices, it’s a good feeling to finally show the community what we’ve been doing.” Peevey said.
mfaye@beaumontenterprise.com
twitter.com/mattGfaye