Pioneer plan

Pioneer plan

Batesville invades Hamilton- Shultz for scrimmage

WM School District The West Memphis Blue Devils' preseason scrimmage opponent the last two years, Pine Bluff, is now not only on the regular- season schedule but in the same conference.

Thus, the Blue Devils will give fans a sneak peak at their team Tuesday night at 6 at Hamilton-Shultz Field against Class 5A power Batesville.

It'll be head coach Billy Elmore's team's big chance at a dress rehearsal before it opens regular-season play Sept. 2 at home against Forrest City.

'I just want to see us execute,' said Elmore, in his third season at the helm.

'We won't spend much time at all preparing for Batesville, as far as film work goes. We're just going to go in and do what we do, and I'm sure (Batesville) will do the same thing.'

Batesville, under head coach Dave King, went 9- 4 last season, advancing to the Class 5A state semifinals before losing to Little Rock McClellan 14-9.

The Pioneers return seven starters on offense and six on defense.

'Right now we're still in the stage of worrying about ourselves,' Elmore added. 'We feel like what we're doing on offense and defense we can adjust to whatever any team gives us. We should have what we need in place.'

The Blue Devils, 5-6 a year ago in making the state playoffs for the first time in three years, should be strong at running back with returning starter Devontae Dean, who rushed for 654 yards and 18 touchdowns a year ago, and junior Guren Holmes, who cracked the rotation late last year.

'I'd say right now (running back) is our strength on offense,' Elmore admitted.

Elmore has yet to officially tab a starting quarterback, but junior Amaurius Stinnett is taking most of the practice snaps. He is getting pushed, however, by junior Michael Troxler, who has come on lately in practice.

Stinnett is coming off ACL surgery on his knee, which caused him to miss half of last year's junior varsity campaign.

'Our starters will get a lot of reps in this scrimmage,' said Elmore. 'The one thing we may get out of this scrimmage is our (weakness) getting exposed. You don't want to go into that first (regular season) game seeing something that hasn't been exposed. That's why I like doing this game on a Tuesday. That way if we do see some things that need to be corrected we can come back on Wednesday through Friday and get it corrected before we put in a game plan for Forrest City.'

Batesville returns an allstater at quarterback in Zach Griffin, who completed 100 of 220 passes a year ago for 1,630 yards and 9 TDS to go along with 5 interceptions.

By Billy Woods