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Show New Experience For Olsen Bountiful Small In Size, Big In Heart 8y DAVE WIGHAM Clipper Sports BOUNTIFUL -- It was a new experience this past season for Phil Olsen and the rest of the coaching staff for the Bountiful sophomore football team. For one thing they suffered through their first losing season since Phil took over some ten years ago but more importantly impor-tantly jt was the first time that Phil had a team smaller than his opponents. "THIS WAS by far the smallest group of kids that we've had since I've been here at Bountiful. Bounti-ful. We were very small compared to some clubs, our biggest guy on offense was only about 150 pounds, the quarterback for View mont was bigger than anyone we had" he joked. Overall the Braves were 3-5 on the year with a 1-4 record in league play. "We got better as the year went on. We were never really blown out of any ball game but as the games wore on our little guys just started to get out muscled" he added. In past seasons it has been the reverse re-verse for the Bountiful sophomore program as they have fielded some beefy teams in the past. "The bottom line was the we're good kids who worked hard but they were just too small." THE FACT comes to life when you consider the best running back the Braves had this season sea-son turned out to be Darren Palmer, a player small in stature but big on desire. Brett Balder-ston Balder-ston and Chris Jacobs split time at the fullback spot while Palmer and Nate Leishman were the tailbacks. . Tim Smith, the younger brother of the just graduated Todd Smith, ran the team from the quarterback spot. When the ball got in the airways air-ways tight end Tyler Freckleton, the youngest of this brother act and the tallest, and Doug Anderson were on the receiving end. IN THE trenches' the sophomore Braves went to war with the likes of John East, Jason Allsop, Dave Oldham, Doug Murray and Brad Dobson. Over on the defensive side of the slate, where Mike Hall was the coach, the Braves looked to linebackers Kirk Shephard, Palmer, Balderston, Ron Remigi and Billy Miller to stop their oponents. Todd Mecham saw action on the line along with some of the players mentioned men-tioned above on offense while Steve Wright and Mike Tobler were the starting corner backs in the secondary. AS THEIR coach mentioned the Braves were never really blown out of any battles, in fact they came close to winning some of those they dropped. Highland beat them 14-13 on a late kick return, Weber knocked them off 20-19, 20-19, Woods Cross by a score of 16-8. Their lone win in league was a 27-13 victory over East. Besides Phil Olsen and Mike Hall the Bountiful Boun-tiful sophomore team also had Brad Christen-sen, Christen-sen, Rob Allred and Otto from Weber State of their staff. |
