CASPER – The Torrington High School football team got to strap on the pads and helmets for the first time this summer in a game situation late last week in a team camp at Kelly Walsh High School in Casper.
Coming off an 8-3 season which ended up on the losing end of the Class 2A state championship 14-7 to Lyman, the Blazers got their first taste of action against a Class 4A opponent.
The Blazers and Trojans took part in linemen drills, 7-on-7s and a scrimmage.
“I was pretty pleased with the young guys and the varsity team,” said coach Russell Stienmetz, who is heading into his third season. “It was great to get out with full pads and have some contact against somebody else.”
The Blazer coach said there are areas that need to be worked on.
“There is plenty of time to work on those between now and the first game in August,” Stienmetz said.
When it came to the scrimmage, both sides took some time to feel each other out since the teams have never seen each other before.
“The first couple of our reps on the 7-on-7 and even the first couple reps of the scrimmage, everybody was a little tight that we were going against a 4A team,” Stienmetz said. “They were even a little apprehensive going against us.”
Stienmetz made it clear to his team, they could only put 11 players on the field.
“Then, all of the sudden, everybody was like, it’s just football,” he added.
Two of the bright sides included the return of quarterback Beau Bivens and the play of the young linemen.
“(Bivens) came out slinging it like there was no injury from last season,” Stienmetz said. “We are very happy with his performance.”
As far as the linemen go, there was no senior on either the offensive or defensive side of the ball.
“I was impressed with the sophomores and juniors that were playing,” Stienmetz said. “We cleaned some stuff up. I was very pleased with our young line. They got out and competed to the whistle. We can build off that.”
The Blazers continue their summer workouts on Thursday when Kelly Walsh makes the return trip to Torrington for a camp from 1-3 p.m. at the team’s practice field before doing 7-on-7s for the remainder of the summer against area teams.
