By ROY HESS, Staff Writer
The first week of football workouts at St. Joseph Academy brought some surprises, both good and bad, for the Bloodhounds.
The team, under new coach Tino Villarreal, previously the offensive coordinator, started with a “Midnight Madness” practice under the lights of Canales Field at 12:01 a.m. on Aug. 3.
The first week of workouts culminated with Saturday’s intrasquad scrimmage, which was won by the first-team offense 21-16.
Villarreal anticipated 50 to 60 players would be on hand for the initial week of practice, but the Bloodhounds wound up with fewer than that.
“We didn’t have the numbers I thought we might have, but we did have some younger players come out that we hadn’t been counting on,” Villarreal said. “In fact, there are younger players who are stepping up and may even earn a starting job, so that’s been good.”
One of those newcomers who figures to make an impact on the offensive line is freshman Gabriel Caram, a 6-foot-2, 270-pounder. He is the younger brother of senior offensive lineman Abraham Caram, a 6-3, 260-pound three-year starter.
The Bloodhounds are coming off a 5-5 non-playoff season, and Abraham Caram sees the team as unified in its focus of getting back to the postseason in TAPPS after a one-year absence. There are nine starters returning on offense and seven on defense.
“I think we had a successful first week of practice,” the senior offensive lineman said. “We worked on conditioning and learning new plays. The team worked hard. We’re showing our dedication and we’re getting more unity.
“As a team, our expectations are very high,” he added. “We aim to do better than last year. We want to rise above everyone (else’s) expectations of us. We’re working hard for it.”
With its fast-paced offense, SJA had set a goal of running five plays per minute and 50 in total through 10 minutes to begin its “Midnight Madness” practice last week.
“We ran 39 plays and didn’t quite make it to 50,” said Villarreal, whose quick-strike offense is patterned after that of the University of Oregon. “But that was still pretty good.”
Villarreal said the team’s defense is making strides along with the offense. Christian Putegnat, the former head coach, is now SJA’s defensive coordinator.
“We’re playing harder and we’re more physical with harder hitting (on defense), which is what we want,” Villarreal said. “We’re building mental toughness.
“St. Joe is a finesse team that plays against ‘smashmouth’ (types of) teams,” he added. “We want to pack a little more punch and be more aggressive (defensively).”
This year, the Bloodhounds will play both of their scrimmages at Canales Field, starting at 6 p.m. Friday against Rio Hondo. Then they’ll scrimmage at home against Lopez at 7:30 p.m. on Aug. 21 before opening the season Aug. 28 at Raymondville.
“It’s ‘Football 101’ here at St. Joe right now,” Villarreal said. “It may be a little slow sometimes, but we’re getting there.”
Roy Hess covers sports for The Brownsville Herald. You can reach him via email at [email protected]. On Twitter he’s @HessRgehess.