Pirates solidify offseason question marks at key positions
A POLSON Pirates wide receiver catches a ball during a one-on-one drill during their 7-on-7 with Whitefish. Pirates’ head coach Pat Danley said he was “pleased” with the summer participation for his teams as they begin preperation for the upcoming season. The first official practice for the Pirates will be Aug. 10. (photo by Jason Blasco/Lake County Leader)
Polson High School football coach Pat Danley knows Class A Montana High School Activities Association football championships start in the spring and summer.
Danley and his coaching staff have encouraged Pirates players to be active during the summer with football-related activities.
So far, the Pirates’ summer plans to improve have paid dividends Danley said.
“We’ve had a few kids that are working really hard,” Danley said. “I would like to have more numbers (than what we have) but the kids that have been in camp are working hard.”
The Pirates participated in a full contact, fully padded practice with conference rivals Libby and Whitefish two weeks ago. The camp allowed Polson to take a look at some of their personnel and start the evaluation process that will be ongoing up to their opening week game against Corvallis on Sept. 6.
“The camp was pretty decent,” Danley said. “Whitefish and Libby are much improved from last year and hopefully we will be better than we were (last year). Our conference is a dogfight every week.”
The Pirates have a few positions that are solidified headed into the 2018 season, including the quarterback position. Last year Bo Kelley won a closely contested quarterback contest to be the Pirates’ lead signal caller. The position battle at QB changed when he tore his ACL during basketball season.
Now, last year’s back up Colby Soderquist will get his chance to become the Pirates’ leader, something Danley said has grown during the offseason.
“We plan on starting him this season and rolling with him throughout the season,” Danley said.
Soderquist should have plenty of targets to throw to including wideout Trevor Schultz, Ryker Wenderoth and Parker Toth, who will be weapons at Soderquist’s disposal.
“I think those three guys will likely start in the defensive backfield and all three of them bring different things to the table in term of their skill set at wide out,” Danley said. “Hopefully, we will be way more experienced at receiver compared to where we were last year and that is one thing I am very excited about.”
Thus far, Danley said he felt the Pirates’ defense has made more progress than the offense.
“This year our defense is ahead of our offense at this point and that is because we have some returners,” Danley said. “Our defensive side of the ball should be pretty solid. We are doing some tweaking on offense, which is a little bit from last year. We have solid returners and a pretty solid line backing core.”
Other players include junior tackle Seth Lake, John Marquardt (center) and starting guard Wyatt Goode, who received second team all-conference accolades.
“We have two positions on the offensive line open and when we find two more candidates, they will be huge additions to us,” Danley said.