A Week 1 bye may sound a bit odd, but the Basalt High School football team is making the most of the extra practice sessions this week after finally getting a taste of live game action last weekend.
The Longhorns opened the fall this past Saturday with a 40-8 non-league home win over Arvada in what was technically Zero Week. After a bye this week, BHS will turn its attention toward regional powerhouse Rifle on Sept. 6.
“Our kids work extremely hard at this, so it’s a credit to the kids more than anything. From the weight room they do, to the effort during practice, to our senior leadership, I couldn’t be more pleased with how Saturday went,” longtime BHS coach Carl Frerichs said following practice on Wednesday. “Defensively, we felt like we have some things to work on, but that’s the nice thing now, having this bye week, is we can really clean some of those things up with gap assignments and some coverages that we struggled on.”
Basalt (1-0) made pretty easy work of Arvada — the Bulldogs’ only points coming in the fourth quarter with the game well out of reach. BHS senior running back William Daniel owned the contest, rushing for 242 yards on only 14 carries with three touchdowns, according to the MaxPreps stats. Junior quarterback Karson Schneider, making his debut as QB1, wasn’t tasked with doing a whole lot, although he did throw a touchdown pass to senior receiver Taylor Hays.
Led by the running game, Frerichs has high hopes for what this offense can accomplish this season.
“We really feel right now that’s our strength, is our offense,” he said. “And we feel if we can get our defense to come along with them, we are going to be a heck of a team.”
Despite only giving up the late score against Arvada, he saw plenty of holes in the defense that needed to be addressed during the bye week. These concerns, however, are mostly typical early-season issues, such as knowing your assignments, all details that can be fixed in the coming weeks.
“We felt like pad level on defense could be better, so we try to work on some drills with that,” he said. “We felt like pad level even on the offensive line could have been better. Just really trying to break it down, slow it down, instead of trying to put in all the schemes for Arvada.”
Basalt is coming off a 7-3 season in which it lost as the No. 8 seed in the first round of the Class 2A playoffs to No. 9 The Classical Academy, 40-19. TCA lost a week later to No. 1 Delta, 16-14, with Delta going on to beat No. 3 Rifle in the 2A championship game, 54-14.
Delta entered this fall ranked preseason No. 1 in the coaches poll, followed by No. 2 TCA and No. 3 Kent Denver. Moffat County came in at No. 10, with Basalt sitting just a few spots outside the top 10. Rifle, which moved back up to 3A this season, is effectively preseason No. 11 in that classification.
Basalt’s Friday, Sept. 6, game at Rifle is tentatively scheduled for a 7 p.m. kickoff. BHS will then return home on Sept. 13 to host Glenwood Springs in a non-league game.
“We tell the kids all the time: Their attitudes and their efforts are really what the game is all about,” Frerichs said. “And when I see the kids working as hard as they are in the weight room and working as hard as they are in practice and the way they are treating each other, I know we have all the ingredients to do what we want to be able to do this season.”
Aspen Skiers are 1-0
Upvalley, Aspen football also is off to a 1-0 start following a 28-8 non-league home win over Grand Valley last Friday. AHS junior Dylan Mika was the workhorse, according to the MaxPreps stats, rushing for 160 yards on 17 carries with two touchdowns.
The Skiers were off this past week because of experiential education, and also have a bye next week. Aspen, which received no preseason votes to be ranked, went 3-6 last season under coach Eric McCready, who is entering his third season as the head man.
Aspen next plays Sept. 13 at Steamboat Springs before hosting Summit on Sept. 20. AHS closes out non-league play on Sept. 28 at Kent Denver.
Basalt will host Aspen in the regular-season finale on Nov. 1.
Roaring Fork football is in action on Friday night, when it travels to Ellicott for its season opener.
acolbert@aspentimes.com
