Last week's scrimmage with South Bend Clay, said Warsaw Community High School football coach Phil Jensen, was a like a quiz. Tomorrow's season opener against U.S. 30 rival Columbia City is a test. Jensen's Tigers, who enter the 2011 campaign after a 1-9 record last year that saw them go 1-6 in the Northern Lakes Conference, have set the goal of "setting a new tone." Against the Eagles Friday night at Fisher Field, Jensen's team will get its first real taste of how far it has come from a year ago. "We don't want to be 1-9 again, I know that, nobody does," said Jensen when asked about his team's goals for this season. "The kids have set the goal of setting a new tone. Their attitude in the offseason was the best we've had. All in all, I'm pleased with the progress and the effort." Warsaw averaged just 12 points per game last season, all the while giving up 28 points per game. In seven of the Tigers' 10 games a year ago, they scored 14 points or less. With the graduation of quarterback Jeremy Coppes, the duty of running the offense and directing the Tigers up and down the field this year falls squarely on the shoulders of 6-foot-2, 185-pound sophomore Austin Head. Jensen said the quarterback battle in the offseason was between Head and junior Austin Reynolds. The 12th-year Warsaw coach chose Head, and went on to say that Reynolds will play in the defensive secondary. "We're gonna go with Austin Head," said Jensen, who owns a 66-50 record during his tenure at Warsaw and a 95-62 mark in his 16th season overall. "They're both equal. Both can do a lot of things, and Austin Reynolds is going to help us in the secondary." Jensen said both Head and Reynolds have handled things well, but playing under the lights on Friday night is totally different than practice or a scrimmage. Among others expected to be big parts of the offense are running back Zach Rooney and receivers Taylor Cone and Jordyn Wray. "We're gonna run a lot of double split-end stuff," said Jensen when asked about what sort of offense his team would run. "We're not gonna use a tight end a lot, we're just not ready yet. We're gonna try and spread the field out." Anchoring the offensive line that will block for Reynolds and Rooney and Co. will be Keegan Bruner (6-2, 290), Cameron Shepherd (6-3, 340) and Patrick Rosenbarger (6-0, 260) and Jorge Carillo (6-0, 250). Bruner has started on the defensive line the past two seasons, but was switched to the offensive side this year to provide size and strength up front. Over the years, maybe because he played for Chris Geesman at Penn, Jensen has favored running the ball. With Bruner, Shepherd, Rosenbarger and Carillo up front, the Tigers are bigger and stronger on the offensive line than they have been in some time. "We haven't been this big and strong on the offensive line in a while," said Jensen. Defensively, the Tigers return experienced players in Cameron Fritzel, Jeremy Lehman and Ford Ness. Following Friday's season opener with Columbia City, the Tigers will travel to Homestead on Aug. 26 and then open conference play by hosting Plymouth on Sept. 2.
