After just two weeks of practice and only one week in pads, the Blue Tide held their first scrimmage Monday.
Though it was evident that it the season had just begun, Blue Tide head coach Ron Flott said he was pleased with the effort of his team despite inconsistencies on offense.
“Right now it’s hard to tell, we still will have to look at the films, but we did do well in spots and then we did bad in some other spots,” Flott said. “Hopefully when we look at everything we will have done well 51 percent of the time and not so well 49 percent of the time. At this point in the season that will satisfy me.”
Flott said he was pleased with the level of intensity displayed by defensive players.
“I don’t know, I think when we got the right group of kids on the field, we looked pretty salty out there,” he said.
The scrimmage lasted nearly two hours with the varsity teams taking most of the snaps, but the junior varsity squads also got on the field.  
Over the first series of the plays the defense seemed to dominate shutting the offense down, but then as the scrimmage progressed the offense also had its moments.
Running backs Vanda Vereen, Deonte Ellis, Fred Nelson and Josh Berry played well. Quarterback Jacob Turner looked consistent, hitting several receivers and he connected with tight end Luke Golden for a touchdown.   
On the defensive side of the ball several players made quality plays, but the hardest hits landed during the scrimmage seemed to be made by Berry and Jeffery Hall.
The special teams got in a little playing time, though the question of who will handle the kicking and punting duties has not been determined.
 “We’re way behind on our special teams, and we are still looking for who’s going to be kicking; we have a lot of work still do on special teams,” Flott said.
(Go to www.coastalcourier.com to see more pictures from Monday’s scrimmage.)