S’water hosts final warmup vs. Merkel

‘Meet the Mustangs’ also set

Nolan County’s football teams end the preseason starting Thursday evening with scrimmages by Sweetwater and Roscoe.

On Friday the two sixman schools, Highland and Blackwell, will also be playing their final scrimmages until the season starts on Aug. 26. Sweetwater will go to Idalou but the other three start at home. Roscoe hosts Colorado City, Highland entertains Loraine and Blackwell welcomes Aspermont.

Athletes in cross country and volleyball will be introduced, plus the sub-varsity football players, Sweetwater band and cheerleaders, on Thursday following the end of the sub-varsity and start of the varsity scrimmage at Mustang Bowl on Thursday.

After the varsity scrimage varsity players and student trainers are introduced.

Sweetwater will play host to Merkel in the sub-varsity scrimmage at 5 p.m., with the varsity scrimmage to start at 6:30. Each team’s offense will run three series of 10 plays against the other team’s defense in the subvarsity scrimmage. But in the varsity scrimmage, both Sweetwater and Merkel will start by running two 10-play series on offense, then shift to running two eight-play series each. There will also be special teams work until the teams wrap up the night with a live quarter.

Sweetwater’s head coach Russell Lucas has said that this year, special teams will receive a lot more emphasis than in the past. “If we can stay even with people I think we’ll have an advantage,” said Lucas, entering his second year at Sweetwater.

But there are still a lot of big questions that may not have answers by Aug. 26, even after two scrimmages.

The Mustangs might use a two-quarterback system unless a clear starter emerges, and there are few players with varsity experience. The offensive line is a big priority. “I think we’re moving forward,” said Lucas. “But we’ve got so many guys who just haven’t done this before. There are going to be some growing pains.”

The scrimmage at Lamesa produced just one score, by Sweetwater, and the defensive play pleased Lucas. “I thought we played well (on defense),” he said. “Lamesa was huge and we’re not. So we’ve got to be stronger, meaner and tougher.”