Pintos practice before MSHSAA's dead week

The Pintos held the second of two summer camps last week. California practiced offense on Monday and Wednesday, and defense on Tuesday and Thursday. They worked on both on Friday.
The Pintos held the second of two summer camps last week. California practiced offense on Monday and Wednesday, and defense on Tuesday and Thursday. They worked on both on Friday.

With this week being the Missouri State High School Activities Association's mandatory dead week, the California Pintos used last week to hold its second of two football camps this summer.

The most important objective was to allow the new coaches to get familiar with the players, and in return, the coaches evaluated the players to help figure out what offensive and defensive schemes work best for the Pintos.

"Obviously we have to get the kids in the right offense where their talents are," said California coach Marty Albertson. "We've been fortunate the last three years with the same quarterback. We ended up in spread, and this year we're probably not going to be in spread. We're just kind of letting these new coaches get to know these players and know their strengths and talent that they have."

While the Pintos moved to the spread last year, the team is familiar with the veer and midline-style offenses they worked on last week. Offensively, there are a lot of new faces, but they know how to run it from pervious years. The offensive line was Albertson's only worry, saying, "they're learning."

"I think last night in the offensive drills as a team, the kids looked pretty good," Alberton said. "They looked right up to par, where I want them to."

On defense, Albertson expected a slow start since the players weren't used to the new system.

California didn't dig too deep into its playoff, only about six plays on offense and two different defenses. Albertson is fine with that and understands there's going to be a learning curve.

"There's obviously a lot to learn, and since we have new people, we've got a whole new offensive line this year," Albertson said. "It's going to take awhile."

Quickness was a word that was mentioned a lot, and it's something the Pintos will have to rely on both on the offense side of the ball and the defensive side.

"We have to use our quickness to get our players out in space on offense, and we'll have to use our quickness to beat blocks on defense to get a tackle," Albertson said. "We've got to get a lot of people to the ball, pursuit defense. We can run, so we have to use that. That's one of our strengths."

California starts Fall practice on Monday, Aug. 3, and the season kicks off on Friday, Aug. 21, as the Pintos travel to Boonville at 7 p.m.