Broncos short on experience

RITZVILLE – The Broncos are looking forward to their first competition on the football field this year.

A Jamboree with Davenport and Reardan, originally scheduled for Jan. 20 at Davenport has been re-scheduled for Monday, Jan. 22 at 4 p.m. The location has not yet been determined.

"We always look forward to the Jamboree," said head coach Greg Whitmore Monday. "It is an opportunity to get repetitions at game speed, which is something we really can't mimic in practice. We've got a lot of young players that this will be an eye opener for, and it will give us a good opportunity to evaluate them."

Whitmore said the Broncos have six seniors, no juniors, eight sophomores and 11 freshmen this year; and not many returning starters.

"Unfortunately, we've had a few kids with experience decide not to turn out, and another starter unable to play due to injury, so we may have less experience than anytime I can remember. So we have to do some shuffling," Whitmore said. "Nineteen of our 25 players are freshmen or sophomores, but they are working hard and very coachable."

Offensive starters include Jay Harder, Doug Morris, Carson Ayers and Cooper Miller.

Starting for the defense are the above, along with Hayden Melcher and Jeffrey Staley.

Whitmore, in his 29th year coaching football at Ritzville and 11th season as head coach, is joined by coaches Jason Hilzer, Bryce Court, Zach Swanger, Mike Lynch and volunteer Kellen Hayes.