By John R. Schirmer
News-Leader staff
The Nashville Scrappers wrapped up spring football Thursday, May 25, with their annual spring game at Scrapper Stadium.
“I’m happy where we finished up,” Coach Mike Volarvich said. “We improved a good bit. Kids were able to get a lot of reps.”
The game was the only scrimmage of spring football. “We had six practices instead of 10 because of baseball having the success they had. Ten kids played baseball, and the school provided fan buses for the semis and finals,” Volarvich said.
The Scrapper roster includes “a lot of young guys” among the 76 players. “We have a bunch of young kids who will be sophomores who will be able to step in and help us. We have 30 sophomores, 30 juniors and the rest seniors. This is a small senior class. Numbers are good right now. I think off the top of my head that these are some of the better numbers for Class 4A. They create some depth and allow us to practice better,” according to Volarvich.
“We came out healthy. There were no injuries during spring football. We were able to get some work done and teach physicality, and we want the kids to stay healthy.”
The Scrappers “will be new at a lot of places” after graduating a host of seniors, Volarvich said. “On offense, we have to replace all five linemen, our running back and two receivers. We have three returnees on offense. On defense, we probably have one lineman returning. We’ll have four new linebackers. Three will return in the secondary.”
The Scrappers also “graduated a good kicker, Jose Hernandez.” Jonny Pioquinto worked at the position during the spring and at the scrimmage.
“With all the turnover, we’ll have a lot of new faces and a lot of unknowns. We’ll see how it unfolds,” Volarvich said.
Because the Scrappers are so young, “The summer will be a little busier than last year. We’ll have our typical lifting and running three days a week, but there will be more camps this summer. That’s important because of being a young team,” Volarvich said. “We’ll get as much work done as we can, as many reps as we can.”
The team camps will start this Friday, June 2, at 8:30 a.m. at Scrapper Stadium. Six teams will participate, including Nashville, Hope, El Dorado, Lakeside, Magnolia and Camden Fairview.
“There will be a lot of good players. It’s a chance to get a lot of reps. The kids get to see how we compare to bigger schools,” Volarvich said.
The remainder of the June schedule includes the following:
June 6 – Team camp at Magnolia
June 8 – Team camp at Ouachita Baptist
June 13 – 7 on 7 at Benton
June 15 – 7 on 7 and line challenge at Fairview
The Arkansas Activities Association’s dead period will be at the end of June and early July.
The Scrappers will compete in 7 on 7 July 12 at Malvern.
Players will report to the weight room three days a week in June and July before fall practice begins in August.
“I’m excited. It’s been a busy spring. We had some guys at the state Decathlon that extended the track season. The baseball players are state champions. We had a lot of kids having a lot of success in Scrapper athletics. It’s an exciting time,” Volarvich said.
