Odessa High wants to make it a familiar feeling.
When the Bronchos step to the turf at Ratliff Stadium on game days this fall, they want a competitive air to follow with them.
When they take the field there, starting with their home opener in September, they want effort and execution to define the night.
Through the season, they want to establish that field as a place where the Bronchos battle, compete and achieve, week in and week out.
So Saturday, they got a head start on that.
The Odessa High football team closed its spring practice schedule with its annual Red-White game Saturday at Ratliff Stadium — wrapping up spring ball with a competitive intrasquad scrimmage in the same stadium in which the Bronchos will vie for victories this fall.
Odessa High head coach Danny Servance said he saw that same nature from his team that he’d like to see on those game days starting in September.
“I saw guys competing, and that’s what we want to do any time that we step out on the football field,” Servance said, standing just off the turf after the spring game concluded.
“We want to compete.”
The Bronchos did just that Saturday, as the two units the roster was split into challenged one another, with experienced veterans seeing snaps in game-like situations along with younger players.
This spring was a unique one for Odessa High, as the Bronchos coaches challenged nearly everyone on the team to take up positions on both offense and defense.
Throughout April and May, the group of players who mostly played offense last season was dubbed Effort, while the opposite group, made up of primarily defensive players, was named Hustle. A typical Bronchos practice would start with Effort players on offense and Hustle players on defense, before coaches were call on the sides to switch midway through practice — and call on each player to take to its position on the other side of the ball.
Saturday’s scrimmage marked the culmination of that spring-long work toward versatility. Saturday, Hustle became the Red team while Effort became the White team — and both sides played series on both offense and defense.
“I think it was good for everybody to get their chance to play and shine, and show that we can all play wherever we need to,” Bronchos quarterback Trey Smith said.
Smith, a sophomore who will be a junior in the fall, made several highlight plays throughout the workout — and he was back to take the first snap on the opening series, which pitted first-teamers vs. first-teamers on offense and defense.
On the opening snap, defensive tackle Keevan Majors blew up a running play for a three-yard loss, to start the scrimmage with a bang.
Smith got two of those yards back with a run on the ensuing play. Then, facing third-and-11, Smith hit Julian Galindo for a completion on the right side — but returning starter Aaron Ochoa made the tackle just after the completion, limiting it to a seven-yard gain and earning the defense a stop on that opening drive.
Two series later, Smith made some of his big plays. Two plays after an 11-yard run for a first down, he scampered for a 27-yard gain from the defense’s 37-yard line to set up a first and goal.
 “He played with confidence,” Servance said of Smith. “He took command in the huddle and on the field. He did a great job of running aggressively, and acted like he belonged out there — and that’s what we want out of our quarterback, because he’s the guy that’s going to be in command when he’s out there on the football field.”
Smith and the other Bronchos quarterbacks played full-contact with the rest of the team — and they didn’t shy away from the challenge of being tackled and taking hits.
“The officials asked, ‘Hey, do you want us to blow the whistle?’ ‘No. No we don’t.’ We’re running our quarterback a little bit more this year than we did last year,” Servance said. “We want those guys to be dual-threats, so we wanted to see if they could take some licks today.”
Right after that 27-yard run by Smith, underclassman quarterback Kameron Gonzales checked in, running around the left end to get to the 1-yard line. After a run was stuffed for no gain on the inside, Gonzales faked the handoff one way and then skirted around the line the opposite way on the misdirection, and scored to the mark the first touchdown on the day.
“Our younger, freshmen quarterbacks did real good,” Smith said. “A few mistakes, but everybody makes mistakes. But overall I think we did good.
“It was a good experience for them to come up here and play with us.”
Two other younger quarterbacks scored the day’s other two touchdowns during the scrimmage’s second half. Ivan Miranda connected with Christian Ochoa on a 28-yard touchdown pass, and Dre Cobb rushed around left end for an 11-yard score while underclassmen were taking snaps in the scrimmage’s later series.
“They showed a lot of improvement from the beginning of the year,” Majors said of the Bronchos’ younger players.
Majors, a junior, was among those younger players playing a healthy
