Spartan football will welcome North Sanpete to Castle Dale on Friday August 11 for the season opener, but before then the Annual Black and Gold Scrimmage will take place this Friday, August 4 at 7 p.m..
The Spartans ended last season 7-4 overall and went 4-1 in region play, finishing in second place in the 2A North. This year with realignment they will be in the 2A South, facing teams like Delta, Grand, South Sevier and the final team they played last season, San Juan.
The Black and Gold game is the best time for everyone to come find out what the team has been working on this off-season and the new and familiar faces that will be lining up for the Spartans on both Sides of the ball.
Spartans head coach Jon Faimalo was a guest on KOAL’s Drive Time Sports and talked about the scrimmage, along with those returning in key positions.
“Wade (Stilson) at the helm, which helps a ton, he opened a lot of people’s eyes at that San Juan game, with what he was able to do. Creek Sharp is back, he was a big part of that tandem of those two. Matt Olsen stepped in as well in that slot position and picked up the slack. We’ve got those guys that are pretty prolific and pretty good offensive threats with Dane in the backfield and with a few linemen returning in Easton Thornley and Derick Jensen, he kind of started towards the end of the year, and Kalib Olsen.”
Last season ended with the Spartans giving up 56 points to eventual State Champion San Juan in the semifinals, but that was an anomaly for Emery who was very good defensively throughout last year. Faimalo is looking to build off that success going into 2024.
“If we can get us some stops, you know and get ourselves off the field, offensively I think we can hang with about anybody, but defensively we’ve got to get a lot more physical upfront, the linebackers got to be a little more physical, and we’ve just got to make teams grind it down the field as much as we can.”
You can see all aspects of the 2024 Spartan football team on display this Friday at 7 p.m., on the field in Castle Dale.