Camp Verde High School football fans should prepare for a fast and furious fall.
With a roster of only 32 players, and a mere seven seniors and three juniors among them, Darby has been using his practice time since a five-day Irvine, Calif., team camp ended Aug. 1, giving his underclassmen every opportunity to contribute to an offense that will have a few new wrinkles.
“The California camp really helped us prepare our offense,” he said. “The kids have got it down now — we’re just working on the timing and the execution.”
Not just in Irvine, where the highlight of hill runs, trips to the beach and two-a-day practices — on a field shared by Sedona Red Rock High School — was taking down Division III Phoenix Greenway High School in Big Man and seven-on-seven competitions.
“The kids were surprised by how well they did,” Darby said. “Mingus shared the field with us last year and it was real successful. But Greenway had a lot of athletes and was pretty intimidating.”
While Darby did not discipline fumbles with runs up the steep, sandy hill next to the field like the Marauders did, “we all ran the hill the last day,” he said.
“If they fumble the ball, we still do up-downs. Two kids were late for the bus, so they had to sing, ‘Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star’ to the team.”
For the full story, please see the Wednesday, Aug. 13, issue of the Camp Verde Journal.
