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Bayfield football already ‘off and running’

Team camp helps Wolverines prepare for ‘Zero Week’ game

Four days at the Colorado State-Pueblo team camp afforded the Bayfield High School football team all the scrimmaging it could handle.

That’s why the Wolverines declined to scrimmage with Durango High School and Montezuma-Cortez High School on Friday and won’t scrimmage again before beginning the regular season Aug. 28 at Kirtland Central in New Mexico.

“We got beat up, so we didn’t dare take Durango’s invitation,” BHS head coach Gary Heide said. “We play a ‘Zero Week’ this year, so we don’t have a scrimmage date. We’re off and running.”

BHS brought 47 athletes to Pueblo, which allowed them to field both varsity and junior varsity teams.

All of those reps for younger players could benefit the Wolverines when the season begins, as they currently are without senior quarterback Kelton McCoy, who broke a metatarsal in his right foot during the summer baseball season.

Junior Josh Westbrook filled in for McCoy and did a “fine job,” Heide said.

Heide expects to have McCoy back by the team’s season opener.

“We’re looking forward to having him back,” Heide said.

BHS finished 5-5 last season, returning to the postseason after a one-year absence.

The camp also presented the Wolverines an opportunity to adjust to new members of their coaching staff.

BHS hired three full-pay assistants and two half-pay assistants in March, chief among them defensive coordinator Mike Wnorowski.

Wnorowski shifted BHS to a 3-4 defense with three down linemen and four linebackers this season as opposed to the 4-3 the Wolverines had been running.

“It’s more linebacker heavy. That’s the position we’ve got a lot of athletes compared to linemen,” Heide said. “The entire coaching staff was at camp. It’s starting off good because they all were dedicated.”

Ignacio High School

Change and uncertainty are in the air for the Bobcats.

So far only 27 players have signed up for football this upcoming season for new head coach Alfonso Garcia.

“We’re going into a blind spot where we don’t know how many kids are going to show up or who’s going to show up,” Garcia said. “I’ve been impressed with the kids. They’re working hard. To them, what we’re doing is something different.”

Garcia replaced Lupe Huerta, who coached the team the previous seven seasons.

IHS last reached the playoffs in 2009 and went 1-8 last season against a purposefully challenging schedule.

The spread offense Huerta favored likely will be on its way out given the athletes available to IHS. “It’s going to be a more balanced offense,” Garcia said.

The new coaching staff will also install a new defensive scheme.

“Hopefully they buy into our system. It’s a totally different bunch of ideas,” Garcia said.

kgrabowski@durangoherald.com

Mar 5, 2015
Bayfield football restructures coaching staff


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