SPRINGDALE -- "Packer" is one of the many pre-snap calls Daniel Salas yells out at the line of scrimmage when Springdale High has the football.
But the call is unique from others the senior center shouts out over the course of a game. It can't be found in the Bulldogs' playbook.
The Skinny
Position Battle: Offensive Line
Watch Out For: Senior left guard Adam Thompson. … The 5-foot-11, 253-pounder has put on around 25 pounds in the offseason and graded out the best during Springdale’s three-team scrimmage with Booneville and Shiloh Christian.
Biggest Strength: Experience and continuity. … Thompson, center Daniel Salas, right guard Kaleb Wade and right tackle Jose Ambriz all started together last year and are entering their third year playing with each other.
Biggest Question: Left tackle. … Senior Jonathan Munoz is working with the first-team at the spot, but Wade can also slide over and play it if needed. When Wade moves, junior Alex Davis fills his right guard spot.
It's one of several substitute calls Salas made up on his own and shared only with his fellow linemen. Even line coach Trey LaValle is in the dark on some of them.
"I may not understand exactly what they're telling each other, because I told them don't be the same in everything you call," LaValle said. "And they make some silly calls up. They're chattering back and forth.
"As long as they know what it means, rock on with it."
Chalk it up to a rare veteran high school offensive line that has multiple years of experience playing together.
Salas (5-foot-11, 225 pounds), left guard Adam Thompson (5-11, 253), right guard Kaleb Wade (6-0, 279) and right tackle Jose Ambriz (5-10, 230) played sub-varsity ball together as sophomores, then started alongside each other on varsity as juniors last fall. The bunch has become close knit off the field, often making group trips to CiCi's pizza or Chinese restaurants -- wherever there's a buffet.
And the cohesiveness is evident between the hashmarks, too.
"From an experience standpoint, they've come a million miles," LaValle said. "That was the advantage of keeping that whole group together. They've been together three years and you can see a difference in that."
The line figures to be much improved entering its second season on varsity after a junior year that was understandably up-and-down at times. Salas and Ambriz have emerged as leaders and were voted captains by their teammates during fall camp.
And while the front isn't as big as some others in the 7A-West, the group is noticeably larger as a whole than it was last August.
"All of them have made enormous gains in the weight room," LaValle said.
Thompson put on around 20 pounds in the offseason. Senior left tackle Jonathan Munoz' strides in the weight room put him in a position to start this fall, while juniors Steffan Bonilla (6-0, 255) and Alex Davis (6-2, 273) are also competing for playing time.
The line will no doubt do more pass blocking this year as a result of all-state running back Deandre Murray's graduation and the continued maturation of junior quarterback Fuller Chandler and the passing game.
"We've worked on that a lot," Thompson said. "We knew after Deandre was leaving, we don't have another Deandre. But we have to be more able to pass and run."
Fall camp has been a little easier on LaValle this year. There's been more time spent fine tuning as opposed to scrambling to prepare a group of underclassmen for their first taste of varsity action.
"They understand some of the base expectations going in," LaValle said. "So we haven't had to spend as much time on those. You can get a little more developed as far as the coaching techniques, the finer points of it as opposed to the broad strokes you generally take.
"This group being together three years, we've been able to hone it a little more each year."
Sports on 08/31/2014