Wolves Jump into the Frying Pan against Dibble in First Scrimmage

A LITLE HELP FROM THEIR FRIENDS. The Davis Wolves will look sharp this year as they head into the 2023 season with not only with new red uniforms but, white ones as well. Davis Wolves Head Coach Greg Parker, coaching staff and the entire Wolves football team presented Lincoln Sadler and Shawn Barnett with signed game balls from the entire team. The pair hosted a golf tournament that raised enough funds to purchase new uniforms for the football team.

By Jeff Mapes
The Davis Wolves football team made the long trip to Allen on Aug. 18 and battled the host Mustangs and Dibble in the first scrimmage of the new season.
The three squads braved the extreme heat in a practice that lasted approximately 90 minutes. Temperatures at the start of the scrimmage were well over 100 degrees.
“It was hot,” Wolves’ head coach Greg Parker said. “I thought our kids played hard. I think the heat drained all three teams.”
“It was pretty rough conditions,” Parker continued. “It’s hard to get in good shape when it’s hot like this because it’s so dangerous.”
Parker and his staff evaluated not only the team, but individual effort as well. All players on the Wolves’ roster saw limited action throughout the evening.
“There were a lot of mistakes as we expected,” Parker said. “First scrimmages are usually pretty ugly. It was good to get that first time going against new people. It being live all the way to the ground, I thought we were pretty physical.”
The way the scrimmage was designed, the first-string offense and defense both ran 20 plays. Parker estimated the junior varsity played the same amount as well.
“We’re not in very good shape, but nobody is at this point,” Parker said. “There’s a lot more things to fix than not. That’s usual. That’s the way it goes.”
Luke Linville, Seth Knapp and Gage Coppenbarger all received playing time at quarterback. Davis used a host of running backs and scored six touchdowns on the night.
Junior Rance Digby posted the Wolves’ first touchdown on a 40-yard run against Dibble. Knapp connected with Coppenbarger for a 22-yard score on the same series.
“We played too high,” Parker said of his offense. “We didn’t stay hooked up on our blocks long enough.”
Linville and Ethan May both scored touchdowns on 40-yard touchdown runs. Junior Brenden Rawls also scored twice on runs of four and seven yards.
“I didn’t think we attacked the snap real well,” Parker said when he turned his attention to the defense. “We played too high. We didn’t tackle great.”
“There’s a lot of stuff to work on but we knew there would be,” Parker continued. “But it’s a lot different going against live bodies than it is against bags or just scrimmaging amongst yourselves. This scrimmage was important because the next one we have, our starters will go less.”
Parker and the Wolves travel to Marlow this Thursday for their second and final tune-up. The junior high team will scrimmage first before the high school hits the field.
“It’s not the time to get injuries,” Parker said. “These next two weeks are very important to us.”
This all leads up to the season and home opener on Sept. 1 against Pauls Valley. Davis will host the Panthers for Homecoming.