Panthers Host Tatum in Scrimmage Today
By John Earp
The Jal Panthers Varsity Football Team began their summer seven-on-seven practice July 7th. At the end of their first week of practice, they traveled to Roswell to participate in a big 7-on-7 scrimmage tournament, where they played schools from across the state, including Roswell, Tatum, Grady, West Las Vegas, and Mesilla Valley. The Panthers advanced in the tournament to the quarterfinals. Coach Satterwhite said of his team, “I thought they did a good job. We competed hard. It’s always tough because we practiced for a week and then we go and play in that tournament and we’re not in quite the kind of shape we need to be in to play six football games, even though they’re in shorts. I thought the kids did a good job and we got to see and execute the things that we had worked on earlier in the week. The main thing is just to go out there and compete hard and do what you can do and see if you can’t get a little bit better and get to do it against somebody else that doesn’t know what you’re fixing to line up to do, so they can’t cheat it. So, that’s the fun part.”
Satterwhite says the Panthers this year are “a combination of some experience, but a lot of youth and there was some older but inexperienced players.” The 7-on-7 practices are off-season and not mandatory. Satterwhite says he expects to see more boys come out as the summer progresses. Two-a-days begin August 4th.
I would say, our strengths will be in Daniel Ornelas, who returns at quarterback and linebacker, and David Gaytan, who was our only first-team all-district player last year at linebacker, and then he’s going to play tight end for us. And then beyond that, we had Zayden Lujan that played in the secondary and played receiver, Jose Valenzuela, is one of the fastest kids in the state. He’s got a year of experience under his belt, so we look forward to seeing what we can do with him. Those are the are the guys that have the most experience. We had a couple of young guys that played on the line last year. Hector Barrera, our center, he returns as a senior. Juan Maldenado at one guard, and then at the tackle on that side is Fern Sauceda. We’ve got some good kids who I think will try to step up. Young guys and inexperienced guys are going to try to fill those spots.
Satterwhite says his approach on offense this year will be more balanced between passing and running. He mentioned Eyan Faulkner will be returning as a receiver as well. Coach says, “We’ve got a little experience there, just not a ton. So, I’m kind of feeling like maybe at this point we might be able to run the ball a little better early until we kind of get everybody broke in.”
The Panthers have a scrimmage today, Thursday the 23rd, at 5:00 p.m. against Tatum at the practice field north of Utah St. The new astroturf for Panther Stadium will be ready before the first home game, scheduled for Friday August 22nd against Dexter.