Football teams are always more than ready for a little outside competition at this point of the pre-season and it certainly was no different for the MHS squad.
The Bluejays bounced down to Wausau West on Friday for a four-team scrimmage with their hosts and Rhinelander, as well as Lakeland as a late substitution for Wausau East.
The Bluejays may have preferred to face off with East instead of Lakeland, since the T-Birds are on Merrill’s regular Great Northern Football Conference schedule, although they don’t show up until Week 9. Rhinelander appears in Week 3, following this Friday’s home game with Onalaska and next Thursday’s road contest in Menomonie.
Regardless of opponent, the Bluejays showed head coach Nick Sturm some of the fire he was seeking.
“I thought the kids performed pretty well,” Sturm noted. “Until we get that first game under our belt, everybody is anxious to see where are we at in a game situation.
“We just enjoyed having some good live experience and competition. It’s always nice to see how you’re going to compete against other teams and I thought we showed very well.”
The team has some solid expectations for the season, but they will remain focused internally.
“I think they know if we perform up to our ability level, we can play with some good football teams,” Sturm said. “This year our focus is going to be on our team. The end result will take care of itself if we keep getting better.
“As much as possible, we’re going to try not to focus on the end result of winning and losing. We’re challenging the guys to look at themselves each day and figure out, ‘How can I get better today?'”
On Saturday, the Jays seemed to be up to the challenge immediately.
“Offensively, we were very sharp,” Sturm said. “We executed for the most part and didn’t have too many errors. We scored some touchdowns against each opponent in 20 plays, which is not too bad.
“Defensively, we gave up one touchdown. In the third scrimmage we had the third-stringers in after five minutes and they gave up a score. In the first two scrimmages, I don’t believe we had a first down given up. Defensively, we swung to the ball.”
Sturm offered the following observations looking at the styles they faced, and will face again in the cases of the Hodags and T-Birds.
“Rhinelander is going to run its belly series out of a double-wide set, and they’re going to add a little option,” he said. “Lakeland is going to run more of a spread offense, veer-based, out of the pistol.
“West will run what they’ve run for many years, the wing-T. They’ve got good speed outside, and two very good linebackers, college-type kids.”
Merrill will open the real season with Onalaska at Jay Stadium at 7:00 p.m. on Friday.
“They’re big up front, so I expect them to be pretty physical,” Sturm said. “They’re very aggressive. They’ll run a 4-3 4-4 defense.
“On offense, they’re going to try to establish the run and use some play-action (pass). They’ll show us multiple spread sets as well, but in the past they’ve thrown the ball quite a bit more.
“They have some big guys up front, a different quarterback and a solid tailback. So it makes sense to get him the ball more and establish the run.”