Camp over, Cowboys setlook to Blue & Gold game

The Crook County High School football team held its annual Pigskin Football Camp this past week.

The camp was for both youth and high school players, with grades 2 through 8 working on skills and games from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. with the high school portion of the camp following the conclusion of the youth camp.

“At last count we had 146 kids,” Crook County head coach Pard Smith said of the youth camp. “It’s a pretty good turnout. Since I’ve been here I think this is the second highest turnout we’ve had.”

High school players did much of the coaching and running drills during the youth camp.

“They coach a lot of the drills and do a lot of the coaching and they are interacting with the kids,” Smith said. “It’s a great experience and our kids have done a great job this year.”

Although he is hoping to have more players come out for the high school program, Smith said that the high school portion of the camp is also going well.

“It’s not bad for being camp,” he said. “There are still some kids missing. I have 41 kids right now that are ready to go on Monday (the official start of the fall season), but we are hoping to push that number up by 20 or 25 or so.”

Smith added that although they are having to slow things down to teach the system to incoming freshmen, the team is still running the same system that they have since he became the head coach four years ago. As a result most of the older players are already familiar with the playbook.

“I would say that 95 percent of our playbook is in,” he said.

The first opportunity to see the team in action will be on Saturday, Aug. 24 at the annual Blue & Gold Dinner and Scrimmage.

Dinner is scheduled to begin at 5 p.m. with the scrimmage to follow beginning at 7 p.m.

Cost for the chicken dinner is $10 per person. Family rates will also be available. There is no cost to watch the scrimmage.

The high school football team will begin warming up at 6 p.m., while some middle school players will play flag football on the other end of the field. Shortly before 7 p.m. the team will be introduced to the general public, before the scrimmage starts.

“We hope to see everybody out and thanks for the community support,” Crook County head coach Pard Smith said.

The team then will play at a jamboree in Madras the following Friday, Aug. 30, before opening the regular season on Friday, September 6 in Estacada.