Colby Weeks goes up for a catch for Hobbton on Tuesday.
(Dunn Area Sports Photo/John Lucas)
Hobbton hosted Lakewood for a seven-on-seven football scrimmage Tuesday.
Wildcats coach Joe Salas has been pleased with what he’s seen from his team during summer workouts and seven-on-sevens.
“They’re excited” Salas said. “Strong culture. Great leadership. We’ve got a bunch of returning players. The kids are excited. The coaches are excited. It’s summer time. We’re ready for football.”
Coming into last season, the Wildcats were replacing nearly their entire offense because of the number of seniors on the 2019 team. This year, Hobbton is returning most of last year’s squad and will have some players back that missed last season.
“We had a bunch of defensive guys back last year, but were starting over on offense,” Salas said. “We thought the defense could carry us, but we turned the dang ball over so much early in the year that the defense couldn’t protect us. Then we kind of got a little hot streak at the end. But this year we’ve got the most returners on offense.”
“The big thing is we’re getting some guys back that missed last year. Julian Avilez missed last year because he tore his ACL playing basketball in the summer. He’s going to be a force for us. Harrison Hunt would have been a starter at defensive end last year, but he had to sit out because he had family at home that was vulnerable to COVID. And then we had a bunch of kids ineligible. We’ve got a bunch back that should have been playing last year and we’ve got a lot of experience coming back.”
Salas was pleased with what he saw from Hobbton’s deep passing game and the improvements on defense.
“We were working on our vertical stuff,” Salas said. “We feel real good about that. We had a good vertical game last year. We like the way the linebackers are developing. Getting Julian back in there is a big deal. Just getting reps. Seven-on-seven is about getting reps and we felt like we got about 2000 reps in the vertical game.”
Hobbton travels to South Brunswick for more seven-on-seven scrimmages on Thursday.
Loden Barefoot delivers a pass for the Wildcats against Lakewood.
(Dunn Area Sports Photo/John Lucas)
Torren Melvin makes one of his three interceptions.
(Dunn Area Sports Photo/John Lucas)
Bobby Dial runs after a catch in Tuesday’s 7-on-7.
(Dunn Area Sports Photo/John Lucas)
