Cards And Grizz New Coaches Face Off In 7 On 7

The Soda Springs Cardinals and the Grace Grizzlies football teams will be led by new head coaches this upcoming season.  Colby Fangman who is the new head coach for the Cardinals and Travis Draper the new head coach for the Grizzlies got their first chance to showcase their new teams in a friendly game of 7 on 7 last Thursday night.  The game was very entertaining and competitive between the two evenly matched teams.  The Grizzlies and Cardinals do occasionally cross paths in school sports but football is one sport that the two schools do not regularly compete against one another.  The players enjoyed the chance to compete and get on the field for some scaled back action.  The boys kept their efforts at the top level while still being able to have fun and joke with some of their opponents.  The new head coaches seemed pleased with where their teams are at this point of the summer.

Coach Colby Fangman takes over the Cardinals head job this season and comes with a wealth of experience.  Fangman was born and raised in Texas where football is a way of life and he fell in love with the sport.  Fangman has spent the last thirty years coaching for several different high schools and even has some college level experience.  He has experiences with schools and teams of all sizes from some of the biggest levels of high school ball all the way down to eight-man.  Fangman has brought with him his wife and kids.  Mrs. Fangman will be teaching second grade this year while his son will be a junior at Soda Springs and his daughter will be a sophomore.  As far as coaching the Cardinals goes Coach Fangman is well aware of the program’s recent success or lack thereof.    “The team has been through a lot. Oh and eighteen “is rough. I know the community has still been supportive.”  Fangman also commented on the crowd that showed up to last week’s scrimmage.  “I’ve never seen a crowd like that for a seven on seven.”  So the big question is what are Coach Fangman’s plans to right the ship on the field?  His answer “In my experience programs like this need some kind of drastic change.”  One of the biggest changes will come on offense.  Fangman will be focused on a passing attack rather than a run first offense.  “It takes a lot of commitment but it can happen.”  Fangman also talked about changing the culture, “it’s a big task and there’s a lot that needs to be done.”

While the Cardinals will be faced with a whole new coaching staff the Grizzlies new head man is a familiar face.  Coach Travis Draper has been on the Grizzly coaching staff for the last four years as the offensive coordinator.  Coach Draper also comes with a large resume coming from the sideline.  Draper commented that he recently figured out how long he has been coaching and it came out to thirty-five years.  Prior to coming to Grace Draper coached at a small school in Wyoming while also coaching in Montana and even spent one season under Idaho legendary Coach Gino Mariani.  In his time at Grace Draper has already had four sons play for the program and one spent time as an assistant coach.  As Coach Draper transitions to the head job he is aware of his increased responsibilities.  “The head coach is more involved in the game plan, scouting and watching film.”  One thing Coach Draper is looking forward to this season is the fact that the jr. high program will be playing an eight man schedule.  This will allow the coaching staff and even, at times, the teams to work together to better the program overall.  Draper takes over a program that has qualified for the playoffs for four straight years but also will need to try to replace nine graduated players that were part of that four year run.  Draper named a few of the incoming seniors as potential game changers but when it comes to team success he stated, “the success of our team will ride on our line play like it always does.”  Draper is also a fan of the passing game and hinted that the aerial game may be a larger part of the gameplan that it has been recently.

Liking a healthy passing game isn’t the only thing that the two new coaches have in common.  In addition to taking on the new head coaching roles both Fangman and Draper will serve in the position of athletic director for their respective schools.  One last thing they will have in common: both coaches will coach their son in the role of starting varsity quarterback.  To those unfamiliar with the two programs that may sound like a bit of favoritism, but that is not the case here.  The younger Fangman and Draper would likely serve in that position regardless of who the coach was.  Both coaches expressed their appreciation of the public support for their teams and hope that the public will continue to give that support this season.  I personally can attest to the potential and talent on both teams and I for one cannot wait for the season to begin.  The two squads will have a few more scrimmages this summer before the actual season begins.  The Cardinals plan on traveling to Utah later this month to take part in a multi-team padded scrimmage where Coach Fangman will get a better look at what he is working with this year.  The Cardinals regular season begins on August 22nd in American Falls.  The Grizzlies will start the season at Oakley also on the 22nd of August.