Beatty football opens against Big Pine

The Beatty High football team has high hopes for this year's season because they return with nearly all of their impact players.

Last season, the Hornets went to the playoffs for the first time since 1996 and second year coach James Robertson expects the team to do it again.

"Our only weakness is we don't have a veteran quarterback coming back," he said. "We could see Nick Zamora out there, Jhonpaul Adujar or even Hugo Mendoza at quarterback. Last year we played well and beat all the other teams but Pahranagat Valley and Spring Mountain. We have a lot of juniors and to win we just have to play football."

The Hornets open the football season in a non-conference game against Big Pine, California on Friday at home at 3:30 p.m.

Robertson said he expects his team to run a lot against Big Pine, but his team can pass and he reminded me that his team still has junior receiver Jacob Oseguera, who led his team in receptions last year and was all-conference first team.

Robertson also said his team will be strong defensively.

"Like offense, we have everyone coming back," he said. "We did well on defense last year in stopping both run and pass. Our only problem was covering fast running backs, which Spring Mountain had."

Beatty is also happy about their freshman class.

"We have a big freshman class this year with even one freshman starting," Robertson said. "And when I mean big, three of them are over 200 pounds."

The coach said the team will wear their new uniforms thanks to the community.

"Thanks to several businesses like U.S. Ecology, the VFW, the Sourdough and the Beatty Hair Salon, our team will be showing off new uniforms," the coach said.

Along with some minor player changes, Beatty added Leo Verzilli to the football staff after a one-year absence. Verzilli will also be the new athletic director for the school.

All six home games this year will be played at the baseball field due to football field reseeding.