Palo Verde Watch

By Brett Okamoto, Steve Silver

Friday, Dec. 5, 2008 | 3:54 a.m.

Friday:

And they're off....The Palo Verde football team boarded their bus to Reno at 3 a.m. outside of their locker room.

The Panthers were rocking their black practice jerseys.

Sleep will be a precious commodity on that bus.

"Eight hours with these guys...that's more entertaining than an iPod," senior running back Chaz Thomas joked.

The Panthers arrived in Reno safely and hit the Mackay Stadium turf at 2:45 p.m. Palo Verde had brief walk through in helmets and shoulder pads.

Tonight the squad will eat a spaghetti dinner together at their hotel and coach Darwin Rost has ordered the team to be in their rooms with lights out by 9 p.m. Kickoff is at 12:07 p.m.

Thursday:

Palo Verde coach Darwin Rost tried to keep the intensity level high during the Panthers' final practice Thursday before heading to Reno.

Most of the practice was spent with first team offenses and defenses running plays against the scout team.

For the second consecutive day, Rost seemed to call a lot of pass plays and the much maligned quarterback Kelly Zurowski delivered on almost every one. Zurowski to Torin Harris could be a successful combination on Saturday.

Following practice Rost delivered a stern lecture to his players about making sure to be on time to the bus, packing properly and getting enough sleep.

Palo Verde will depart on a bus to Reno at 3 a.m. Before they board they will have a chance to grab breakfast courtesy of the wrestling team.

Rost told the team they will not make many stop, but they will have boxed lunches provided by Jason's Deli.

The Panthers plan to arrive at their hotel by 1 p.m. then hit Mackay Stadium for practice at 2:45 p.m.

After that the squad will eat a spaghetti dinner in their hotel and then it's lights out.

Interesting note on Saturday's game - three of the five referees with be from the Southern Region.

Wednesday:

The Panthers had their first full-contact day of practice. If you can call it that.

If you were on the scout defense, your practice started with Panthers coach Darwin Rost making the following announcement:

"I don't want to see any play being taken to the ground, you stand everything up. That doesn't mean you don't hustle, but I better not see anybody being taken down. Today is not about seeing how well you guys tackle."

The scrimmage basically turned into a game of two-hand touch with both sides of the ball getting its chance for some reps against the scout team. Fifteen weeks into the season, the practice was mostly to keep the players loose and hammer out any final mental questions.

"When you've been going at it for fifteen weeks it doesn't make much sense to come out and have a real intense practice," Rost said. "I talked to [Las Vegas head coach Chris] Faircloth today and he's been in a lot of these games, and I asked him at this point in the year how does he have his guys do it. He told me he usually goes live all the way up to playoffs and when those come you stop it a little bit because you don't want to dink anybody up for these games."

One thing that stood out with the offense on the field was the number of throws being called in to quarterback Kelly Zurowski in the red zone. While the Panthers ran a balanced attack up the field, Rost called a significant number of pass plays at the end of the field.

When asked if that was a tactic that was going to be used against the Lancers, Rost said he was merely trying to get his quarterback the reps.

"That was more about reps than anything else," Dost said. "Kelly's been real good throwing the ball with a deep field, we wanted him to feel comfortable doing the same when it gets to be short."

All week long the Panthers players have gone about their preparations with loose steps. If they're nervous about the pressures of a state championship game they haven't showed it.

"They know that this week right here is get all the mental part done, get all the boo boos corrected," Rost said. "And then when you get on that bus ride I think that's when you're going to see their intensity change."

Tuesday:

The Palo Verde Panthers returned to full pads for Tuesday's practice, but they were still ordered not to tackle each other.

That, however, did not stop a few "love taps" from being thrown a few times.

Two notable hits brought out the "oohs" and "ahhs" from the squad. First Torin Harris nearly beheaded Sean Mears as Mears tried to haul in a high scout team pass. Then linebacker David Castro gently laid a wake-up call on sophomore Thayer Coon.

The Panthers, as expected continue to run plays against scout "McQueen" teams. The Lancers run 5-2 and 5-3 formations a lot so that was of particular concern to the offensive players.

"We've seen almost everything this year, it's just that (McQueen) plays good team defense," said running back Chaz Thomas. "They swarm to the ball really well."

Coach Darwin Rost seemed especially fired up during Tuesday's practice and throughout the offensive unit's one-hour film session following the on-field workout.

He is trying to install a few new wrinkles into his offense, but after a certain Las Vegas Sun reporter took a peak at the Panthers' playbook, it is amazing that Palo Verde truly only runs about 14 different base plays.

Rost's biggest challenge this week is just keeping his team focused until Saturday.

"It is 'State' so I mean the whole time all you want to do is play the game, but you know that you have to practice and get everything set, get all the little pieces in place first," Thomas said. "We know what we have to do to prepare."

Toward the end of Tuesday's practice Harris appeared to have tweaked his left ankle, but Rost did not seem too concerned.

"He'll be fine," Rost said. "The kid just need to take care of themselves, get wrapped and get treatment when they need it."

Monday:

After a one-hour weightlifting session, the Palo Verde Panthers kicked off their final countdown to the 4A state championship with what coach Darwin Rost described as a "light practice."

First the quarterbacks and running backs worked on simple hand-off practice and then the whole squad ran through various special teams formations. The Panthers focused particularly on kickoffs and punts.

The Panthers walked through offensive and defensive schemes against scout teams since this was their first time focusing on McQueen. Players received offensive and defensive scouting packets and playbooks Monday and the defensive unit stayed after practice for a short film study session.

The most moving moment of practice was when Rost simply stated to the whole team that Palo Verde is 1-1 all-time against McQueen.

With his players kneeling in front of him, Rost said, "McQueen is 1-1 against and this Saturday we are going to go up 2-1. Understand?"

The team responded with a unison "Yes, sir."

This squad is eerily calm and collected – perhaps that just the mark of a champion.

Since beating Las Vegas 42-21 for the Southern Nevada championship on Saturday, Rost said college scouts have kept his phone lit up at all hours.

This could explain one intriguing spectator at Monday's practice – a scout from Utah who kept a close eye on linebacker Liloa Nobriga.

Nobriga, a 6-foot-1, 211-pound senior, can run a 4.73 forty-yard dash and is a three-star recruit, according to Rivals.com.

What makes the whole case of the Utah scout interesting is that Nobriga verbally committed to Hawaii in October, but recently seemed to be leaning toward BYU. He is tentatively scheduled to make a campus visit to Utah shortly after Saturday's state championship.

Check back here for more daily updates from the Palo Verde Watch, an inside look at the Panthers path to a championship.