WM football hits ground running

WM football hits ground running

Blue Devils hitting in the heat as fall camp opens

WM School District With all the summer work that is now a part of high school football, West Memphis head coach Billy Elmore said his Blue Devils are far enough along, execution-wise, that they could play a game now.

With one caveat.

'I'm not saying it would be crisp, but we could line up right now and look OK,' said the third-year skipper.

Over 100 Blue Devil players reported to practice Monday at Hamilton-Shultz Field, and as always, the heat was there awaiting coaching staff has taken special measure to keep the players hydrated.

With six returning starters on each side of the ball, Elmore has his most experienced club, and it has shown in summer team camps.

'Last Monday we were at team camp at War Memorial Stadium (in Little Rock), running our offense and our defense and I felt really encouraged by the way we played,' Elmore stated. 'It wouldn't be sharp and it wouldn't be crisp, but we could go out and play a game right now if we didn't have to do special teams. '

Elmore said much of the work in the first couple weeks of preseason practice will emphasize special teams.

Also, a lot of the work in the first two weeks involves individual teaching.

'Today isn't a huge change into what we do in individual work,' he added. 'But there's a lot more sense of urgency to it.

'The rest of the way (in preseason practice) I want to see the ball hit the ground a lot less and I want to see a lot of mesh points with our run game and we don't want to see any blown assignments on defense.'

The Blue Devil quarterback position will have a new starter at the helm, and although it hasn't been locked down right now, it looks as though junior Amaury Stinnett is the leader in the clubhouse.

Stinnett is coming off a knee injury that ended his sophomore season a bit early during junior varsity play. However, Elmore said the lightning-quick Stinnett has looked impressive and very much healed from the surgery.

'He looked really good at team camp last week,' Elmore said of Stinnett.

'He's moving well, sliding side to side very well. I'm really encouraged by that.'

them.

The heat index all week has edged well over 100 degrees, but the West Memphis

By Billy Woods