Dauterive’s squad set for Hammond
Published 12:00 am Friday, August 19, 2005
By DAVID FOLSE II
Sports Editor
RESERVE-It’s time to hit somebody else. Carmen Moore’s Hammond High Tornadoes better watch out.
East St. John’s high-tempo offensive attack is set to invade Hammond Thursday at 5 p.m.
“I’m anxious to see how we are going to perform defensively,” East St. John Head Coach Larry Dauterive said. “I want to see if we have made any strides.
“I’m also very anxious to see how Johnnie (Thiel) is going to handle the quarterback situation. It is a total different offense than he is used to running. We also have some key concerns regarding our depth on the offensive line. We have a good set of starters and some back-ups, but beyond that it may be an achilles’ heel for us.”
Dauterive said he likes the way his team is playing heading into the first action against an opposing team this season.
“I think clearly that our strength on the defensive side of the ball is in our secondary,” Dauterive said. ” The other thing that we won’t see in the scrimmage is our kicking game and it is definitely going to be a lot better for us this season. That’s a big plus for us.
“Overall I am just anxious to see our squad go up against someone else besides ourselves. Hammond has a big 260-pound fullback that we are going to see if we can tackle and then we are going to see if we can move the ball against a very good defense.”
Dauterive said he has seen the excitement from his squad as they prepare for an actual opponent other than themselves.
“We actually put in the Hammond stuff on Friday,” Dauterive said. “The kids are definitely excited. I think that they are more excited that they are just not going to be able to beat on themselves.
“They get to go hit somebody else. You try to prepare for a scrimmage and try to give the kids an idea of what it is going to be like so they are not lost out there. We are taking a game-like approach. We are going to run a lot of different things offensively including the option. I am anxious to see how we are going to handle that. We are going to see what happens out there and move on.”
