The heat is turning up as the start of Yuma High School’s football season approaches.
Both literally and figuratively.
Afternoon temperatures were approaching 100 degrees earlier this week as the Yuma Football Team prepared for its season opener Friday at Sterling.
“There’s no point going out there at 3:45 p.m. when it’s the hottest part of the day,” head coach Kelly Seward said Monday, adding that practices likely will be later in the day this week.
The current heat wave is supposed to break after today, August 24, with Friday’s forecasted high being in the mid-80s, so conditions should be relatively-comfortable when Yuma kicks off at Sterling at 7 p.m. It is going to be slick, though, as the region was to get saturated with heavy rain prior to kickoff
Yuma is coming off a 7-4 campaign in 2022 as the team advanced to the Class 1A quarterfinals for the second straight season. That team started out 6-0, including a dominating 56-14 season-opening home win over the Sterling Tigers.
Considering last year’s result, could the Yuma players be a bit overconfident heading into the 2023 opener?
“I don’t think so because there’s so many new faces (in the Yuma lineup), and we’re not going to allow that,” Seward said. “We have just three returning starters from that game…Sterling has a big field with a big grandstand. It’s a bigger town, so the stands should be full. We just need to survive that first quarter and let our nerves settle because we’ll have a lot of new players under the lights for the first time.”
Seward and his staff have a strong idea who will be on the field Friday.
Left tackle is between juniors Christian Munoz and James Brandner, sophomore Reyli Trejo at left guard, senior Carson Lynch at center, sophomore Daden Beauprez at right guard, and senior Pablo Becera at right tackle. The “X” and “Y” positions will be manned by seniors Hugo Montes and Bridger Lynch.
In the backfield, junior Jonathan Thomson gets the nod at quarterback, while junior Damian Kosinski is the fullback, senior Trey Stegman the “3” back and junior Silas Baucke the running back.
Defensively, Lynch will be starting at nose guard, and Becera and Trejo are the defensive tackles. Stegman and Baucke are the inside linebackers, and Montes and sophomore David Covarrubias the outside linebackers. Sophomore Brodie Sheffield is the strong safety and Thomson the free safety.
“We have some good depth,” Seward said. “The only thing is sometimes it’s a sophomore going in for a sophomore.”
Yuma will play Sterling, Burns, Wyoming, Banning Lewis Prep and Brush, before going through a brutal league schedule with Wiggins, Burlington, Wray, Holyoke and Limon.
MaxPreps 1A preseason rankings have Limon No. 1, Wray No. 2, Wiggins No. 3, Yuma No. 5 and Holyoke No. 6. Burlington is the only one out of the Top 10, entering the season at No. 13.
“I think honestly the two best 1A football players are in our league (Limon’s ?? ??? and Holyoke’s Wyatt Sprague),” Seward said. “Some have us finishing last in our league and still making the playoffs. That tells you what everyone thinks of our league. It’s a loaded league again.”
The opening weekend should be a fun one in 1A. Limon is at a tough Florence team on Friday, Holyoke hosts No. 4 Strasburg today (August 24), Wray hosts Highland today, Wiggins is at Brush on Friday, and Burlington hosts La Junta.
It is the start of what should be again a very exciting season of eastern plains football.
