YERMO • The Silver Valley High School football team’s preparation to play against Mojave deviated from their normal routine this week.

In a rare week, The Trojans coaching staff was unable to obtain any video of the Mustangs. Silver Valley plays at Mojave tonight at 7 p.m.

The Silver Valley coaching staff spent significant time scouting opponents on their own in the early weeks of the season — meaning they didn’t need to rely on trades to get video. Silver Valley coach Andy Campbell’s search for film of Mojave came up empty. Desert Mountain League foe Mammoth, who played the Mustangs in the third week of the season, wouldn’t send their film, but Maranatha gave Campbell a detailed scouting report.

Maranatha beat Mojave 62-20 last week and provided diagrams and notes from their experience playing and scouting Mojave.

“I asked them a bunch of questions, and their coach was more than willing to send us a bunch of stuff and a bunch of help,” Campbell said. “That’s really how it’s done. We are not trying to hide anything.

For Campbell, exchanging video comes down to ethics. While some schools closely guard their tapes, Campbell has tried to foster relationships with other coaches around the area to trade film with.

“That’s not how we roll out here," Campbell said. "We’ll win simply by our ability to win and our ability to play. We don’t have to take any of those other routes.”

At other schools he’s been at, Campbell said teams exchanged film of their two previous games. At Silver Valley he’s had to learn the system of trading for video and establishing relationships with other programs.

“Usually it’s a trade, and it almost turns into a bartering system,” Campbell said. “I’ve been turned down film because I didn’t have enough to offer.”

In the end, the golden rule prevails even in coaching football.

“They are not going to give up stuff to an idiot coach or guy that runs up the score or those kinds of things,” Campbell said. “Really what it comes down to is be nice to everybody because you never know when you’re going to need them.”

The Trojans will typically watch film on Mondays and during their sixth period football class. They’ll watch clips from their previous game and from their up coming opponent.

Then they bring it onto the field during practice, starting by breaking into individual groups and reviewing the information. On Fridays, images from videos and the playing field begin to connect for the players.

“There are moments where you sit there and you’re like ‘OK, we’ve seen this in film, and they are going to run this,’ ”  senior cornerback Matt Baca said. “Most of the time they do run it.”

Silver Valley is coming off a 33-27 loss to St. Genevieve, but players and coaches said the team has made significant strides since that game. Baca and senior lineman Jason Cordova said practice has been more intense since the loss.

“Our record still shows 2-2, but we got better as a football team and I would not want to play us this week,” Campbell said.

Contact the writer:
(760) 256-4124 or
mpeters@desertdispatch.com