The Carson High football program begins practice this morning with something it hasn't had in recent memory - depth.
Even though Carson is a large school it has struggled with the number of players who turn out to play varsity football over the years, but that has changed this season. Carson coach Shane Quilling expected 44-45 players to turn out for this morning's first varsity practice.
While it's a decent, but not great number of players for a school the size of Carson, it's certainly an improvement over recent memory. But while the Senators have depth, they also lack experience, especially on the offensive line where it has lost five of six starters, including the tight end. "We've got some depth," Quilling said. "We just don't have the experience."
With that in mind, the Senators took a total of 40-41 players making up a varsity and a junior varsity unit to compete at a football camp in Gold Beach, Ore., from June 25-29. There were 950 players representing 18 schools from California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho and Nevada at the camp.
During the camp, Carson went up against nine other schools, including three state champions, in full contact scrimmages. There were also 7-on-7 and weightlifting competitions.
Quilling said Carson needed to go to the camp to find out "who can play up front. We played actually better than I thought we would. We were able to move the ball on everybody we played."
Among the schools that Carson faced was Meridian, the defending Idaho 5A champion.
"The competition was unbelievable," Quilling said. "We played four or five teams that were as good as any team in the state of Nevada."
Carson had three players who made the all-camp team. For the varsity, Richie Norgrove made it as a wide receiver and defensive back and Jamie Greene made it as an offensive guard and defensive tackle. For the JVs, Jake Madden made it as a quarterback, wide receiver and defensive back.
Greene is the only returning starter on the offensive line, although Trent Simpson, who started four games last year, also returns. And there's Adam Sollinger, who set a camp record for linemen under 190 pounds by squatting 410 pounds.
While the Senators will be inexperienced up front, they will be as athletic as ever everywhere else.
"We're athletic. We're very athletic," said Quilling, who added his team will go four to five deep at receiver.
Carson also selected its captains for this year: Norgrove, Greene, Sollinger and running back Travis Lamborn.
The only drawback of the summer was quarterback Chris McBroom suffering a knee injury, which will likely keep him out for the whole season, Quilling said. It's the second straight year that McBroom has been hurt. McBroom missed most of last year after beginning the season as the starting quarterback.
But Carson still has Mitch Hammond, who ended the year as the starting quarterback last season and has looked strong this summer, Quilling said. "He had a great summer," Quilling said.
Quilling took the most pride in the fact that Carson won the Gold Beach Camp's most prestigious award, the Team Spirit Award.
In presenting the award, camp officials stated Carson "embodied all of the characteristics of what our camp is about. Carson City embodies all that is right with high school football."
Carson will scrimmage Fallon on Saturday, Aug. 19 with the freshmen and JVs going at 10 a.m. and the varsity going at noon. The Senators will open the year on Aug. 25 at Mojave in Las Vegas.