Apaches to take on state finalist in first scrimmage

GONZALES — What better way to get ready for a season than to take on a state-championship-caliber team?

The Gonzales Apaches are traveling to Yoakum for their first football scrimmage of the season, a three-part scrimmage where the freshmen face off at 5 p.m., the junior varsity scrimmage at 6 p.m. and the varsity teams will square off at 7 p.m.

Last season, Yoakum showed off their speed in the scrimmage at Apache Field. This season, Gonzales Head Coach Kodi Crane sees that the Bulldogs, a team that was one win away from the Class 3A Division I state title, has a bit more swagger this season.

“Yoakum as they sit right now has a totally different mentality than they had last year,” Crane said. “They ‘wanted to’ last year and this year they know they’ve done it. So, there’s just a different swagger about a team that knows that they’ve done it.”

That “it” meaning getting to the state championship game.

No matter the talent level, and sheer numbers, (Crane mentioned Yoakum went from having around 85 kids come out for football to now 120 kids), the Apaches are ready to take on live competition against someone that isn’t wearing the same jersey color.

“We’re excited about hitting somebody else that’s not wearing an orange or white jersey,” Crane smirked.

The coaching staff will also be paying attention to their new varsity starters. With a lot of newcomers to the top level, Crane and the rest of the staff are checking to see how the athletes will react to the new game speed.

“We have a lot of kids from our JV last year that are up on varsity and that’s a different speed,” Crane acknowledged. “We want to see them react to that new speed. That’s one thing. We got a lot of young kids in the mix. How are they going to react to the speed of a varsity football game? It’s a lot different.”

Physicality is also an important factor to track for the Apaches. With four returners on the offensive line, the Apaches will be relying on that unit as its bright spot of the team. Whether they, along with their younger players, can be physical against a team like Yoakum will be something to keep an eye on.

The scrimmage will be a success if the team can show that the fundamentals they’ve been learning throughout the early stages of the season are ingrained in everything they do on the field.

“We’re trying to get our fundamentals and our techniques so ingrained in their mind and in their body and in their nature that whenever we’re going to line up against one of the Moore guys that are going to go to who-knows-what college that those techniques that we use in practice and in the individual drill are still showing up on [the field],” Crane said.