EAST HELENA — For just the third time, Helena, Helena Capital and East Helena high schools came together for a joint football scrimmage, which took place last Thursday at the EHHS stadium.
Tyler Murray, entering his third year as head coach at East Helena, said “it was a good exchange, you know, we all got out relatively healthy, which was one of our main goals when we set this thing up. And just getting a few more reps before the season starts, it was a good time.”
Second-year Helena High coach Dane Broadhead spoke about the camaraderie and seeing the same guys from in his playing days.
“Working on new installs from Bozeman when we went to team camp at MSU, and then it’s just one more look, one more eval of our guys, and seeing different rotations, especially up front (which) were all good things that we got out of tonight,” he said. “So we’ll go watch the film and see what it looks like; the good, the bad andthe ugly.”
Broadhead's Bengals, along with the other two programs, are staying ready as they only have one month until this season truly kicks off.
“It’s like, hey boys, this is the last time we get to put the pads on and hit somebody else until Aug. 25, so, it was a good scrimmage, well ran. All three squads did a good job,” said Broadhead.
Helena Capital, the defending Class AA state champion, will again be lead by head coach Kyle Mihelish.
“We know we have a lot of work to do, that’s what we realized, but overall, I thought we had a good day," Mihelish said.
This type of scrimmage is something that the Vigilantes, Bruins and the Bengals had previously done at the Montana Western, Montana Tech or Montana State camps this summer.
The quick whistle, controlled environment allows for players, both new and old, to continue to work on similar skills as each high school squad prepares for the upcoming season.
“Our expectation every year is to win a state championship, that’s what we talk about, you know, the goals are lofty at Capital High School and they’ve been that way for 50 years, so, that’s something we shoot for, but again, we only take it day by day, week by week, opponent by opponent,” said Mihelish.
