The Three Rivers varsity football team got a better idea of where it stood heading into the 2013 season after Thursday’s scrimmages against Sturgis, Mendon and Hopkins. Wildcats head coach J.J. Wagner was particularly pleased with how his running back tandem performed.
“Ray King and Bailey Miholer-Wortinger both had some nice runs,” Wagner said. “We still have a lot of things to work on up front on the offensive line, but they were able to make some things happen even when we didn’t have some perfect blocks or execute well. They’re both quality kids.”
Three Rivers broke up the 24-minute scrimmages in order to get the first, second and third teams on both offense and defense plenty of repetitions. More than anything, Wagner was happy to get through the evening without any injuries.
“It’s impossible in nine days to prepare for three different teams,” he explained. “We had three different units that had to play in each scrimmage. You want to go out there and execute your stuff, but for a lot of these kids it’s the last time to get on film and try and get themselves on the depth chart. We’re trying to provide opportunities for all our kids. There are times you’re going to look bad and times you look good.
“We did some things well and there are plenty of things we need to work on. We got out healthy.”
Three Rivers opens the season at home against Comstock next Thursday.