High school football spring scrimmages serve several purposes. Yet the most important is to evaluate performances in game-type situations.

For the Newton High Rams, they held their annual scrimmage game Saturday at Homer Sharp Stadium, with the marching band in attendance to give the fans and combatants a feel of regular-season excitement.

The blaring music added an element of pageantry to the showcase of young men donning the blue and white uniforms on the gridiron.

Overall, Newton second-year coach Nick Collins said he was pleased with what he had seen during the controlled scrimmage.

"It's hard to get in what we're trying to do in two weeks," he said. "We can throw the ball on anybody; we just had problems running the ball."

Collins' concentration is geared toward getting his team to run the ball more effectively. In turn, the Rams will run the ball using the wing "T" formation Collins feels is more effective.

"The style we've decided to run the football is not easy," Collins said. "It's not easy to learn the techniques, so right now it's not as pretty as you would want. But for what we've got in, I'm really impressed."

Collins noted that he still has got to get all of his coaches in.

"We've hired new coaches," he explained. "We've got to get them in so we can evaluate and decide at this point based on today, (which) we move where and what things do we have to go back and really focus on once we get into our summer workouts."

Collins is somewhat confident regarding his passing offense and his determined defense. He strongly believes that his team will be able to pass the ball with ease and effective execution.

However, it is quite apparent that his worries lie in the running game.

"I tell people we can pass the ball against any team," he said. "We've just to get more balance with our running attack."

If the Rams can produce a running game come fall, they will improve on their dreadful 1-9 record of last season.

Time will only tell. But for now, time is certainly on their side.