Football season two weeks away

When Gila Ridge takes the field against Yuma High later this month, the Hawks will be playing their first varsity football season.

To help take away some of the nerves, Hawks coach Simon Ocampo turned his teams intrasquad scrimmage Friday into the Hawk Bowl, trying to duplicate the atmosphere of Friday nights. At least, duplicate it to the extent a one-team scrimmage can.

"We put the pylons out, turned the music and the lights on - this is big," Ocampo said. "We want to get the kids in that atmosphere right now. None of these kids have played in that atmosphere. We're going to try to force it on them."

Wether it worked or not will be seen in two weeks. But the Hawks are just one of the area teams that have been practicing for the past couple weeks as the season is set to gear up August 29 for four local teams before a full slate Sept. 5.

As for the Hawk's first opponent, the Criminals are adjusting to Tom Fox, the third head coach at Yuma High in as many season.

And through the first couple weeks, Fox is happy with the way the team looks.

"I like the work ethic, but we're a little light on numbers," Fox said. "But that's typical of going through a head coach a season in the last three seasons. We'll try to get some continuity in the program."

But the team is liking Fox's system, said junior running back J.C. Baker.

"We're looking real good right about now," Baker said. "We've got a wide open offense and spread the field a little bit and spread the ball around. It's going to be the fastest team we've had in a couple years. I'm excited for the 100 years. I'm ready to go."

One of the teams starting Sept. 5 is San Luis. Coach Fernando Solano said before that game, he hopes to have something the Sidewinders haven't had in their history - a freshman, junior varsity and varsity squad.

"We have close to 50 kids out there right now, and a lot of it has to do with the kids not having their physicals or insurance or stuff like that," Solano said. "I think when the year starts we should be good at all three levels. They won't be big teams, but we should have enough numbers to have three levels.

"It's really going to hurt us in the future if we can't get a freshman and JV program going," he said. "It's our main goal to get that going."