Hancock College coach Kris Dutra pronounced himself happy with the progress his football team has made to this point from when it first practiced in pads eight days ago.

He'll reserve his judgment on just how far his squad has come until after Hancock scrimmages Fresno City College this Friday. Scrimmage start time is 6 p.m. at Righetti High School.

"That's when we'll really find out where we're at," Dutra, Hancock's fifth-year head coach, said with a chuckle. "They'll learn more too."

Hancock will scrimmage for the first time since 2001. Injuries hit Dutra's team so hard in 2002 that it didn't have enough linemen for its scheduled scrimmage against Fresno. State budget cutbacks dictated no scrimmaging for 2003 and 2004.

The JuCal Transfer rated Fresno third among state junior college teams in a pre-season poll earlier this month. The publication rated Saddleback of Mission Viejo fourth. Hancock opens its 2005 season there at 5 p.m. Sept. 3.

For now, the Bulldogs coaches can take some stock in what they saw from their players in a Saturday intra-squad scrimmage that lasted just short of two hours.

"I was really happy with it," Dutra said. "We got to see a lot of players. We didn't have a lot of (first team vs. first team) all the time. On offense, we were doing a lot of mixing-and-matching. The idea wasn't to score a lot of touchdowns, but to see different situations

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"It's like a lot of years. Every year (the progress) takes on different forms.

"We have a lot to work on," Dutra added. "I saw some things on the offensive side of the ball in particular that I was not aware of."

Some of the Bulldogs' newer players and some of their returning ones distinguished themselves several times during the scrimmage.

During the first 30 plays, the offense moved the ball well against the defense. After that however, the defense clamped down.

The defense allowed few first downs after the first 30 plays. During the second part of the scrimmage, freshman LaDarrion Anderson made a spectacular catch.

Stretching full out, the 5-6, 145-pound freshman from Victorville (Silverado High School) dove and made a catch at the goal line. The whoops disappeared along the sideline and concern grew as Anderson stayed down.

The anxiety was gone however as Anderson got back up after a minute or so and jogged back upfield, apparently none the worse for wear.

Freshman Corey Stollmeyer, who graduated from Morro Bay High School, made several good runs the second half of the scrimmage. Fullback Taurean McKeller, a 5-8, 253-pound freshman from Bayside High in Queens, NY, was hard to bring down.

Wide receiver Derek Sedin came on strong for the Bulldogs last season, and he made a lot of good stretching catches Saturday. Sophomore linebackers Ricky Aguilar and Luke Deras, who graduated from Lompoc and Righetti respectively, helped lead a defense that closed well on running plays numerous times.

"I was really happy with the effort on defense," Dutra said. Besides the pursuit, he mentioned the secondary's coverage.

"We have some great cover guys, with Lafe Viker, Josh Mitchell, Donald White and Pablo Ramos," said Dutra. "That's a good all-local cover group." Viker graduated from Righetti, Mitchell from St. Joseph, White from Lompoc and Ramos from Santa Maria.

Viker, Mitchell and White are sophomores. Ramos is a freshman.

Although those four looked good Saturday, "We have some out-of-state kids who are really going to push the local guys for starting jobs in the secondary," Dutra said.

The Bulldogs will all have a much better idea of their status come Friday night.

August 21, 2005