Van To Open Van Memorial Stadium In Thursday Contest

Are you ready for some Thursday night football?

After three weeks of pre-season workouts and two scrimmages, the Van Vandals are ready to play a game that actually counts.

Van will host their Van Zandt County rival, the Grand Saline Indians, Thursday (tonight) at 7:30 p.m. in the 2009 regular season opener for both squads.

The contest will also mark the first official football game to be played in the new Van Memorial Stadium.

"This is a great first game with two long-time county rivals playing each other," said Brady Pennington, who is entering his eighth season as head coach of the Vandals. "The kids are pretty excited. This is going to be a great environment for high school football Thursday night."

Pennington has a lot of respect for the Vandals’ opening night opponent.

"Grand Saline is a much improved football team," pointed out Pennington. "They are playing very inspired football when you look at how they have performed in their two scrimmages (West Rusk and Malakoff)."

The Indians will be showing a new offensive philosophy in 2009.

"They were a wishbone team but now they are showing a combination of the shotgun and power-I in a formation that we call ‘pistol," said Pennington. "They are throwing the ball more and they are executing their offense very well. They also will show the option game."

Defensively, the Indians will operate out of a "50" alignment.

"They run a cover-two in the secondary," said Pennington. "They have big lineman. No question, we are going to have our hands full Thursday night."

This will be the only time during the 2009 regular season campaign that the Vandals will not be playing on a Friday night.

"Playing on Thursday affects our schedule somewhat but we have adjusted," emphasized Pennington. "We played our final scrimmage last Thursday night so it allowed us to basically have a regular Monday practice on Friday and our regular Tuesday practice on Monday. The change in schedule is really more difficult on the coaches than it is the players."

Pennington said that his staff and players are excited about the first game in the new stadium Thursday night.

"I know the community of Van will show up in strong numbers and I am sure Grand Saline will have lots of folks here also," said Pennington.

As of Monday, no injuries were reported to any Vandal players and all should be suited up and ready for the kickoff Thursday night.

"This is the first year as head football coach at Van that I can remember going into a season opener with everybody healthy and ready to play," recalled Pennington.

After the Vandals and the Indians open their season Thursday night, the new Van Memorial Stadium will host another season opener Friday night when the Brownsboro Bears take on the Kemp Yellowjackets.

Kemp is a member of District 14-3A, the same district that the Vandals are in.

"It will be good to see one of our district teams in action here in our new stadium Friday night," summarized Pennington. "It should be an entertaining high school football game."

Van will open the District 14-3A season at Kemp on Friday, October 9.

The Vandals tuned up for the contest against Grand Saline by hosting the Troup Tigers in their final pre-season scrimmage last Thursday night.

In the scrimmage portion, the Vandals outscored Troup three touchdowns to one.

The two teams concluded the evening by playing two quarters of regular game action that saw the Vandals post a 20-0 shutout win.

"We were definitely much better offensively against Troup than we were in our first scrimmage against Winnsboro," recalled the Vandal head coach. "We came a long way from our first scrimmage but we still have a lot of work to do. We felt better about our team after scrimmaging against Troup."

Pennington was also pleased with the performance of the Vandal defense.

"Defensively, we really turned up the tempo," said Pennington. "We did a great job and we set the tempo early in the scrimmage."

Individual performances pointed out by Pennington in the scrimmage against Troup included the following:

Skyler Cotton, middle linebacker; Corey Fuller, Ryan Wigley, Chris Leiser and Jacoby Alexander, defensive linemen; and Michael Terry, secondary.

Pennington also recognized the efforts of quarterback Tyler Sharpe and running back Chase Rabe.

"I thought Tyler was very crisp with his passing," said Pennington. "Chase is a big strong runner and he is a real smooth runner. I think his speed is taken for granted."