Plenty of Bright Spots in Orange and Black Scrimmage

Second-year Lely head coach Ben Hammer likes what he’s seeing from his squad so far this spring. Friday evening’s Orange and Black scrimmage at Trojans Stadium did little to dampen his spirits.

“The kids competed,” Hammer said. “We had bright spots on both sides of the ball. We’ve still got to get better on both sides of the ball. We appreciate the community coming out. And we’re excited with the product we’ve got moving forward.”

The scrimmages were highlighted by nice runs by running backs Jayvian Tanelus, Nino Joseph, and Leo Jean Baptiste. Hammer was also able to evaluate no less than four Lely quarterbacks. 

“The kids we expected to look good, looked good,” Hammer said. “We’re going to evaluate the film, though, and we’ll go to work on Monday.”

There were some pleasant surprises.

“I really think both sides of the ball look pretty sharp,” Hammer said. “We've got to work on our conditioning a little bit - we tired out a little at the end. There were some current backups that were really pleasant surprises. I thought Leo ran hard when he was in there. Some of the backup offensive linemen looked good. Some of the backup receivers looked really good. So, we’re excited about that. I thought the linebacking corps did a nice job.”

The Trojans will go back to work Monday and will wrap things up with their spring game against Riverdale at Trojan Stadium on Thursday, May 23.

“We’re going to practice for another week and a half,” Hammer said. “We’re going to host Riverdale. I would love to see everybody out and fill the stands. The kids have been working real hard. We’re excited to take the field against Riverdale. I’m excited for the kids to get to line up and play against kids wearing a different color.”