Ava VolleyBears Will Play at Home Monday
This Friday night marks the beginning of the 2011 football season for high school teams across Missouri.
For the Ava Bears, opening night will be a non-conference game at Strafford.
The two teams met for the first time last year on the Ava field and the Bears pulled out a 35-28 overtime win.
Ava head coach Dan Swofford says the teams are very similar again this year. They’ve got some good players back but are also rebuilding due to graduation. The same can be said of the Bears.
“They’ve got some big guys on the line and we’ve got some big guys on the line. They’ve got a young quarterback and we’ve got a young quarterback,” Swofford said, indicating the teams should match up pretty well.
The Bears traveled to Camdenton last week to scrimmage against Lebanon and Marshfield in the preseason jamboree.
Coach Swofford felt the Bears played well against Marshfield, “But we hurt ourselves with penalties,” he added.
Ava was completely out-manned by a very good Lebanon team, but the Bears did manage to score on them, which was a delight to Ava’s head coach.
“We learned a lot and we’re going to get better,” Swofford said.
Ava will field a new offensive backfield this year with sophomore Ben Loge starting at quarterback and juniors Kyle Clinkingbeard and Caleb Miles at runningback. Chase Willis, a 190-pound sophomore, will also run out of the Ava backfield, and junior Dexter Fish will backup Loge at quarterback while also filling a defensive back position.
Seniors Dillon Adams (6-3, 250 lbs.), Chance Deal (6-1, 230 lbs.), and Jeff Smalley (6-0, 190 lbs.) will anchor the Bears’ front line along with equally talented underclassmen.
The Ava High School Softball Lady Bears opened their season with games Monday and Tuesday and the Volleyball Lady Bears will open at home next Monday night with Fordland.
The VolleyBears will travel to Springfield Catholic on Tuesday, Aug. 30, and will be back home against Spokane on Thursday, Sept. 1.
Monday’s games are junior varsity and varsity only and will start at 6 o’clock. Tuesday night and Thursday night games will include freshmen and will begin at 5 p.m.
