Strength in numbers: Shiprock football team looking to improve on last season’s 5-5 mark

Posted by Quentin Jodie | Jun 8, 2023 | Football |

KAYENTA

Going into his fifth season, Shiprock football coach Anthony Clah is starting to see some stability in terms of numbers.

He has an equal number of players at every grade level and he’s looking to sustain that.

“We’ll have 10 to 15 seniors this (fall),” Clah said. “We’ll have the same amount of juniors and sophomores and we’ll have about 12 freshmen coming out of the middle school.

“It’s a good amount per class, and if we can keep that up we won’t be rebuilding every year,” he added. “That is what I want to avoid, those huge drop-offs in talent every year.”

The Chieftains are looking to improve on its 5-5 record from last year as Clah remains optimistic despite having only a few players on hand during Monument Valley’s 7-on-7 tournament on Saturday.

Eight players made the trip to Kayenta, which is one more than what was required.

“We were missing a lot of skill guys,” Clah said. “I didn’t have a bus out here so they had to get themselves here today. We had a quite a few that couldn’t make it.”

He utilized a mixture of veterans and young players at the 11-team invite as Shiprock played five games, playing the likes of Hopi, Miyamura, Monument Valley, Window Rock and Utah’s San Juan High School.

“With our numbers we actually had some of our linemen play offensive positions,” the Shiprock coach said. “We didn’t have enough so we had them fill in for us.”

Clah said it was good to see other teams during the offseason while noting the different talent levels.

“It’s important that our kids see other defenses, other personnel and just see where everyone is at,” he said. “It’s also good for us coaches to see where we’re at as a team so that we can evaluate on what we can do to prepare us for the fall season.”

In Saturday’s one-day tournament, Elijah Shorthair took up most of the snaps as the soon-to-be sophomore is projected to be Shiprock’s starting quarterback.

Despite coming up short in its games, Clah said he was pleased with what he saw.

“I’m proud of the effort,” he said. “Half of them are new, so they’re still learning. It was a great opportunity to show them where we need to be at compared to the other teams.”

Shiprock will be hosting its own 7-on-7 tournament on June 15 with Kirtland Central.

“I’m trying to reach out to other teams to come play with us,” Clah said, while adding that he’s looking to join other local teams in San Juan County for scrimmages.

“I know some teams meet up in Farmington every week, so we’re looking to get some low-key competition,” he said.