Intrasquad scrimmages begin tonight

With more experience comes higher expectations.

The Southeast High football and volleyball teams are eager to show off both of those at the Blue and White Scrimmage tonight at Southeast High School.

The volleyball team will be begin at 6 p.m. while the football team will kickoff at 7:30. For the volleyball team, it’s a chance to showoff five returning varsity players from 2009. For the football team, it’s an opportunity to display the growth the team has experienced from last season.

And it’s opportunity to start popping a few pads too.

“It’s a big assignment for us,” quarterback Dalton Powell said.

“We hit in practice, but it’s not live contact and it will give us a feel of what to look for during the regular season.”

Admission to the event is a donation of bottled water or a sports drink, such as Gatorade, for the programs to utilize throughout the athletic season.

The scrimmage is just one of many in the area that will be held tonight and Friday night.

The Pittsburg High volleyball team will be taking the floor at 5 p.m. tonight at Pittsburg High School. The Pittsburg High football team will be playing on Friday night at 6 p.m.

The suggested donation for each event is Gatorade and towels.

St. Mary’s Colgan will  be hosting its Blue and White scrimmage at 6:30 p.m. at Hutchinson Field. The cost of admission is a case of water for the team to use throughout the season.

Girard High School will be hosting its soap scrimmages tonight, with volleyball playing at 6 p.m. and football following at 7 p.m.

The suggested donation is laundry soap.

Northeast will be having its Burgundy and White scrimmage tonight at Northeast High School with volleyball playing at 5 p.m. and football at following at 6 p.m. The cost of admission is bottled water or sports drink, but not soft drinks.

Frontenac High School will be hosting its Black and White scrimmage at 7 p.m. on Friday.

Southeast volleyball head coach Cherie Witt said her players are anxious to get on the floor and start meeting some of those higher expectations.

“I’m glad that they have those expectations,” Witt said.

“Because we haven’t had that in the past. It’s nice to have some expectations and I think they’re trying to up to them and that’s what is making them more tense and more focused right now.”

Powell said the scrimmages give the Lancers an opportunity to conduct a dry rehearsal before their opener at Galena on Sept. 3.

“We want to make sure that we can execute each and every one of our plays correctly,” he said. “Other than that, it’s just about going hard and hitting people.”

The volleyball team starts on Sept. 2 when they travel to Baxter Springs.

“They’re excited,” Witt said. “They’re ready to go. We’ll have a different look, a different feel on the floor. We’ve got a lot of girls that have made some improvements over the summer, so they just need to relax and do what they know how to do.”