By John R. Schirmer
News-Leader staff
The Nashville Scrappers are back to their summer routine after two weeks off for the Arkansas Activities Association’s mandatory dead period. The Scrappers returned July 10.
They will wrap up the summer July 27. Fall camp begins July 31.
The two-week break gave the team the opportunity “to get refreshed a little bit,” Coach Mike Volarvich said Tuesday morning. “It was good to kind of get away and refresh.”
Nashville had “an eventful June,” Volarvich said, with conditioning, three team camps and two 7-on-7 competitions. “I was really happy with the June we had.”
The Scrappers’ final 7-on-7 for the summer was July 12 at a tournament which Malvern hosted at Bryant.
“That was our last summer activity other than workouts. We’ll let everybody heal up. We’ll work on conditioning and getting in shape,” Volarvich said.
The Scrappers “didn’t play very well” at Bryant, according to Volarvich said. “We didn’t have the energy I like to see. We didn’t execute very well. You can say that they were off for two weeks, but everybody there had a two-week break. It was a little disappointing to see how other teams played and had some attentiveness and hustle. I didn’t think we brought it. We have to get better mentally.”
The good thing for the Scrappers is that “we don’t have to be ready to play now. We have a lot of time,” Volarvich said.
The Scrappers will work out Thursday and again on July 24, 25 and 27. “We’ll lift and get on the field for speed and agility,” Volarvich said.
The junior Scrappers will attend team camp Thursday at Lake Hamilton. “It’s good for them to go. They’ve been working really hard. They work three days a week like high school. This is a really talented team,” Volarvich said. The junior Scrappers will compete in a jamboree Aug. 25 at El Dorado.
The senior high Scrappers will have two weeks of fall camp before school starts Aug. 14.
They will conduct a scrimmage Saturday, Aug. 5.
Media Day will be Saturday, Aug. 12 at 7:30 a.m.
The Back-to-School Bash will be Friday, Aug. 18, at Scrapper Stadium with the time to be announced.
Nashville will scrimmage El Dorado Thursday, Aug. 24, at Southern Arkansas University. The time will be announced.
The Scrapper schedule for the season includes the following:
Sept. 1 – Hope, 7:30 p.m.
Sept. 8 – at De Queen, 7:30 p.m.
Sept. 15 – at Idabel, 7:30 p.m.
Sept. 22 – at Arkadelphia, 7 p.m.
Sept. 29 – Fountain Lake, 7 p.m.
Oct. 6 – at Joe T. Robinson, 7 p.m.
Oct. 13 – Ashdown, 7 p.m.
Oct. 20 – Mena, 7 p.m.
Oct. 27 – at Malvern, 7 p.m.
Nov. 3 – Bauxite, 7 p.m.
Nov. 10 – State playoffs begin.
