Off-season workouts for the Carbon Dinos football program will ramp up heavily in the month of June as the team prepares for the season opener on August 18 against the Manti Templars.

Entering year three under head coach Josh Huntsman, Carbon will participate in multiple camps throughout the coming month, including the Ute Shoot 7-on-7 camp June 3. The team has attended the camp before, which takes place on the campus of the University of Utah.

“We go to this camp to look at what is going to be viable for our offense,” said Huntsman. “We get to look at different defenses that are of the same caliber. There are teams from Wyoming, Idaho and even Nevada, so we take our plan and see how it’ll work against different packages.”

The Ute Shoot is known as one of the largest, and longest running 7-on-7 high school competitions in the state. Most Division 1 programs have found a way to implement this particular format into their team’s camp, while using a high school tournament as a form of recruiting.

As 7-on-7 camps become more and more frequent, the benefits for teams continue to grow. Playing without pads or lineman, quarterbacks have an opportunity to find cohesion with the receiving core. Receivers have an opportunity to play in space, improve their route running and showcase their speed.

“It’s a good opportunity to see your kids run proper routes, but you can’t too much away from it,” said Huntsman. “It does give you an idea of where you are going to be. A lot of colleges look at it, and at the end of the day the kids like it.”

A total of 25 kids consisting of juniors and seniors will represent Carbon at the Ute Shoot. While the skill position players will participate in the 7-on-7, there will also be a lineman competition to keep all elements of the game involved.

Following the June 3 camp the Dinos will take a week off before returning to 7-on-7 drills in Manti. In the month of July the team will hold their annual Camp Carbon, which sets the stage for actual practices in August.

As Huntsman continues to work on revitalizing the football program, he says there have been positives as several kids have become regulars in the weight room. He also contributes consistency to the key factor in turning the program into a perennial contender.

“We just need consistency. We need to have kids coming out on a consistent basis, but need to not change the offense and defense,” Huntsman said. “If we can trickle down into the youth groups and two junior highs, its going to benefit us.”