HS FOOT: Montclair Prep to head all the way to Bishop for scrimmage

I'll go out on a limb and proclaim Montclair Prep's trip to Bishop on Saturday will be the longest distance a San Fernando Valley team has ever traveled to play a scrimmage.

New coach John Greaves said by the time he took the job, every opponent he could think of already had a scrimmage scheduled. So the team will make the best of it.

"It will be fun. We'll leave Friday and practice in Bishop, we'll stay overnight, then we'll play the scrimmage on Saturday," Greaves said.

Perhaps a weekend together will be a good way to bond because the Mounties are a whole new team, as nearly every returning player either switched schools or is not playing this season.

The good news is a bunch of experienced players have transferred in, including three from Valencia plus a promising new running back from Texas, Blair Stone, so, as Greaves put it, "I'm just getting my team together."

This morning was the first day of full-contact practice, and Greaves, a longtime assistant under departed George Giannini, liked what he saw.

"We've got a 22-man roster with no JV team, just a lot of new players, but we should be good," Greaves said.

Greaves is especially excited about the future because there are a bunch of top Pop Warner players enrolled in the eighth grade or planning to enroll next season, he said.

-- Gerry Gittelson