Inexperience costs Gans in opener

Gans coach Brian Morton knew when three-fourths of the lineup was on the bench with injuries – which meant six players who hadn‚t played a varsity game were forced into a starting role – that it was going to be a trial by fire Friday night for his Grizzlies.

So when Oaks-Mission emerged as a 46-0 victor in the season opener for both squads, Morton was pragmatic, yet hopeful. “Yeah we struggled, we‚re kinda young again,”Morton admitted. “We had multiple plays where we were one play from something big.”

Injuries knocked the majority of Gans‚ experienced starters to the bench, forcing Morton to start a much younger Grizzlies team than he was expecting.

“We know that it‚s going to be a learning process for us,” Morton said, looking at the season‚s big picture. “We‚re going to spend every week trying to grow and develop some of our kids. You want to compete, definitely, and we feel disappointed that we didn‚t compete.”

“There were some high points. I feel like we‚ve got plenty to work with, and the way I‚m looking at it, we‚ve got four more games before district play starts,” Morton said. “We‚ll work on some things to get where we need to be four weeks from now.” With Week 5 being a bye week for the Grizzlies, Morton has an added opportunity to get a little more work in before district games begin in Week 6.

“We‚re playin‚ a little catch up, and, I mean, we‚ve got some key injuries right now,” Morton said. “There‚s some key players that we‚re going to have to wait on [doctors‚] releases on, so, yeah, that‚s part of it. “That means that we‚ve got other kids that are having to develop into those positions. This is a good opportunity for us to get some of the new starters some time that they need.” Last year, the Grizzlies‚ roster was so thin that this would have probably ended the season until they were released to play again.

“We definitely got better depth [this year] than last year, and that‚s a plus,” Morton said. “We‚re a young team again. I‚ve still got a lot of players out there that have never played in a varsity game before.

“I‚ve got some kids right now, it‚s not that they can‚t do it, it‚s just that they just don‚t understand their responsibilities right now.”

“They‚ve got to learn fundamentals and their position skills.” I knew that we were going to have a learning curve.” With the Grizzlies‚ next game on the road against an even tougher Weleetka team, Morton has his work cut out for him, and he knows it.

“Weeletka will probably be one of the strongest teams on our schedule.

We‚re going to make some improvements, and we‚re going to show some improvements against Weelteka,” Morton said.

“I was proud of our kids, and even though the game got out of hand quick, there was effort all the way through until the end. “I‚ve got boys that aren‚t going to lay down. We‚ve just got to learn how to play.”