Sallisaw hosts lone preseason scrimmage tonight vs. Checotah, Grove
Since the Sallisaw Black Diamonds will have a Zero Week game Aug. 30 against Pryor at Perry F. Lattimore Stadium, they only will have one preseason scrimmage to try to iron out all the kinks. That one preseason tune-up will be at 6:30 tonight at home as the Black Diamonds will welcome the Checotah Wildcats and the Grove Ridgerunners for a three-way scrimmage.
“It’s big,” Sallisaw coach Brandon Tyler said about the importance of tonight’s scrimmage. “With as many starters as we have coming back offensively, we want to go out and just perform and look sharp running our offense. We’ve got plenty of reps in from spring ball to team camp to 7-on-7 (passing league) to practice time. We just want to go out and execute well at a high level. Offensive wise, We’ll swap Jackson (Harris) and Kase (Adams) to see what they can do at quarterback and running our offense. We want to see our receivers catch the ball, and we want to see what our offensive line can do. Defensively, we want to make sure we get lined up, tackle and run to the football. We just want to execute all the way around.”
Two good things about tonight’s scrimmage is that all members of the team likely will hit the field at one point during the night as well as get recorded on film for evaluation purposes.
“We just want to execute and get all the kids on film,” Tyler said. “All 88 kids are going to be suiting up, and we want to get everybody on film. We’ll come on Saturday and evaluate, and see if there’s some guys that may be sticking out or playing a little bit harder than others. At this point, we told the kids there’s no starting lineup that is secure. They’re still battling. Everybody is going to get on film Friday night, and we’ll just evaluate them from there.”
A third good thing about tonight’s scrimmage is it will give the Black Diamonds a chance to go up against someone other than teammates in daily practices.
“You always get tired of hitting on your own guys,” Tyler said. “(Practice) has been good. The leadership we have right now on this team is great. They’ve kept the focus every practice, and our seniors are doing a great part in that. We have enough guys we can substitute in and out, and get a lot of good looks. (Practice) has been good, but we are ready to go see somebody else to see where we’re at. We know the speed of the game is going to be different, so we have to get adjusted to that as well.
Editor’s Note: Check out photographs from Thursday night’s Sallisaw Community Pep Rally on our website at www.seqcotimes.com.
