Coach Scroggins optimistic

Football team young but looking good

After the first two-week session of summer football camp, El Dorado Springs Head Football Coach Derek Scroggins is upbeat and positive about his young football team.

On Friday, he told the Sun, “It’s gone really well. We are going to be really young this year and inexperienced.”

“We started off doing some team building at Camp Galilee. Things went very well for us there. We focused on having some fun, learning some football and character building. We did a team building obstacle course at Camp Galilee, as well. It was a way for us to spend three days together and get to know a little bit more about one another.”

“We finished up with a week of football camp at school. It ended up with us going to going to Central Methodist University and going to a full pad camp up there where we got to see some pretty good teams. The kids ended up playing pretty well. By the end of Saturday, things were clicking pretty well for us. We’re pretty excited about the potential that we have. We have a lot of youth on the field right now but they are doing things the right way and showing a lot of desire and intensity. With our older kids becoming better leaders I am excited to see how we improve from week to week.”

Q. How many have you got out for football?

It’s hard to say right now. We brought 40 to CMU, but we know of kids that are playing who couldn’t make it. We’re guessing we are going to be somewhere in the upper 40s to low 50s – somewhere in that area this year.

Q. Have you assigned any positions yet?

We are not going to decide any starting spots until Aug. 1. So, summer stuff is just a way for us to get them some experience and get a look at some kids, that’s all.

Q. What’s your schedule?

We have weights every Monday thru Thursday at 6-7:30 a.m. or 7:30-9 a.m. We have three more days of camp in July from the 18th-20th from 9:30 to noon.

Q. You say you are pretty young this year?

Yes. Last year we had 21 seniors on the team. So, this year we have a lot of new kids vying for starting spots. We will see what they can do and how well they can adapt. So far, things have been looking pretty promising.

I’ve been very pleased with our coaching staff. David Carpenter, Travis Payne have done great and we’ve got a new coach, Robert Jansen, who is doing a very good job. He is motivated and good things are happening.

We have been having a lot of fun this summer and are enjoying the process as we prepare for the 2016 season.