WEEKEND SCRIMMAGE SCHEDULE IS LOADED PREP FOOTBALL

Publication: THE CHARLESTON GAZETTE
Published: 08/17/2007
Page: 4B
Headline: WEEKEND SCRIMMAGE SCHEDULE IS LOADED PREP FOOTBALL
Byline: RICK RYAN

rickryan@wvgazette.com

If you like blocking, tackling and kicking - at least the organized kind - Kanawha County is the place to be this weekend.

A pair of large high school football grid-o-ramas are scheduled for the area, as the 16-team Mountain State Athletic Conference event kicks off today at Laidley Field, with the football fest at Herbert Hoover scheduled for Saturday.

Four teams participate in the MSAC Grid-o-rama today - Ripley, Woodrow Wilson, Lincoln County and Huntington. Ripley and Woodrow begin the proceedings at 5 p.m. The other 12 MSAC schools are set to compete Saturday (see schedule, Page 2B).

Each school is guaranteed two one-hour scrimmages, with each scrimmage lasting about two quarters. Other rules for the MSAC preseason workouts include:

Possessions start on the offense's 30-yard line, with teams getting first-and-10 for as long as they can keep the ball to score:

No returns on punts and no rushing by linemen on extra points;

Start of second quarter treated like second-half change of possession;

Timeouts limited to one per half, two per team.

While some teams want to see how their players react to game-like conditions, others intend to rest key players.

Nitro quarterback Michael Scott will sit out his team's scrimmages Saturday against Greenbrier East and Riverside.

"I still have plenty of things I need to see," said Nitro coach Scott Tinsley, "but Michael Scott is not one of them. I need to see who's going to tackle somebody and who's going to run the ball for us.

"I was hoping to give our tailbacks some carries last week [in a scrimmage with Bluefield], and I found out we could throw the ball with success and I forgot to hand off. I'm going to force myself to hand it off Saturday. If [Scott's] standing there in street clothes, I won't have the temptation to put him in."

Ticket prices for the MSAC Grid-o-rama are $7 for adults and $6 for students.