By DAVE BELCHER
Moapa Valley Progress
Football season is just around the corner! It’s time for another exciting Moapa Valley Pirate football season and it starts a couple of weeks early this year.
MVHS Head Coach Brent Lewis and his staff took sixty-eight players to Fillmore, Utah July 17-20, for another summer football camp. Moapa Valley joined Virgin Valley, Sunrise Mountain, South Summit, Millard, Emery and Beaver at the camp. Seven schools in total were kept busy scrimmaging each other over a four-day period.
The mornings were filled with team practices running drills and through plays. The afternoons had teams lined up against each other to run plays at each other. Moapa Valley and Virgin Valley squared off twice against each other. The first one opened the camp with the first matchup of the week. The last was on the final day.
That Monday saw the Pirates scrimmage Emery and South Summit as well. South Summit started the week as the best team at the camp. By the end of the week the Pirates had pretty much caught up. South Summit was the Utah state runner-up last year, losing to Beaver 55-35.
Millard the host school struggled last year with an 0-10 record. Utah has a huge bracket for the state playoffs allowing the winless Eagles into the tournament.
Emery is from Castle Dale, Utah and finished with a 4-6 record last year. They were eliminated in the first round. Beaver was the state champion with an 11-1 record overall.
We know about Virgin Valley and Sunrise Mountain who are both in the league with Moapa Valley.
That Tuesday saw more practice then two scrimmages one with Millard and Sunrise Mountain.
The Wednesday scrimmages were against South Summit and Beaver.
The final day was with Sunrise Mountain, Virgin Valley and Millard.
The Virgin Valley second scrimmage ended very like last year when Virgin Valley and Moapa Valley players both caught the final pass near the goal line on Virgin Valley’s final offensive play. Both players had the ball as both teams ran toward them. The scrimmage ended with coaches from both teams keeping the players separated as they walked off the field.
It doesn’t matter where the Pirates and Bulldogs compete or what sport, there will always be a lot of emotion involved.
Lewis summed up the camp by saying, “We are a work in progress, but we have potential.”
That potential, mixed with arguably the best coaching staff in the Nevada 3A, may very well mean another run for the state title; which really isn’t a surprise.
