Odessa High School will hold its annual Red and White Spring Game for the varsity football team next week at 6 p.m. May 17 at Ratliff Stadium.
It will be the Bronchos third spring game under head coach Dusty Ortiz.
One of the biggest goals for OHS during spring ball has been to play more cohesive football.
Despite averaging 31.2 points per game last season, the Bronchos struggled in the later half of the year with a five game losing streak.
“What we’re trying to do is we’re trying to complement each other on the offensive and defensive side, that way we have an explosive season with wins,” Ortiz said. “Our defense is coming along, I think it’s going to be better than it has been in the past. They’re really flying to the ball (and) they’re doing their job which is something that we’ve lacked.”
Building on the defense, Ortiz said he wants to see young faces rise to the occasion and compete to fill in spots along the front seven during the spring game.
“Defensively we have some young guys on the defensive line that are replacing some guys that we graduated, and (I) want to see how they take on our offensive line because our offensive line is very experienced, they’re one of our most experienced groups coming back,” Ortiz said. “For the linebacker corps, we still have some open spots and I want to see which kids step up and take control of that position.”
Despite some bumps and bruises throughout the spring, the Bronchos have made it through the spring without any significant injuries.
This includes their starting running back, who was out all of last season due to injury.
The return of OHS’ starting running back will help achieve a significant goal on the offensive side of the ball, which is tempo and ball control. However, the most important factor to achieving that level of offensive efficiency is the quarterback position, which Ortiz said is another position he’ll be watching during the spring game.
“I want to see if our quarterback can manage the game because we want to have a game-like approach, it’s going to that kind of situation that he’s in,” Ortiz said. “Our quarterback that we have in there right now was really good on the JV, he did a great job managing those games. (The) speed of the game gets a little faster when you take a step up, but just see how he manages it (and) how he overcomes adversity. I believe he’s a winner and I think he can will the team to win and so I just want to see how he does.”
