There were a lot of good things that came out of Helias' football scrimmage Saturday morning at the Crusader Athletic Complex.
The most important? Everyone should be back at practice Monday.
"The biggest thing about today was we came out of it completely healthy," Helias defensive coordinator Phil Pitts said after the Crusaders scrimmaged for a little more than two hours on the cloudy and cool morning.
"The guys came out, they competed."
Competing has been a big theme during the preseason for the Crusaders.
"What we need to do is keep working on making sure that our younger, our second string guys keep pushing our starters," Pitts said. "We need to keep working to build that depth because good football teams have it. We got to keep we got to keep improving in that area."
Helias junior quarterback Jacob Weaver, back for his second season as a starter, threw four touchdown passes and ran for another Saturday.
"It's always nice to have the quarterback back," Pitts said. "You're going to be way more comfortable in this offense the second time you do it and I think we see that in Jake.
"We see that he's a playmaker. He's gonna make things happen. And he showed us that today."
Pitts liked what we saw out of the defense.
"I thought we did a really good job making sure that we were in the right spot," he said. "We did a good job of flying to the football.
"I was really happy where they get with our starters on that side of the ball. We just have to keep building our depth."
Pitts was in charge of the scrimmage as head coach Chris Hentges was in Indianapolis to watch his son, Hale, play a preseason game Saturday afternoon with the Colts.
Hale caught all four passes thrown to him Saturday, totaling 34 yards in receptions. Both were second-best on the team in the game. He also caught a 2-point conversion pass in the Colts 21-18 loss.
Last week, Chris Hentges said he was pleased with where the Crusaders were entering his second season in his second stint as head coach.
"We've established our routine, everything was new for the boys, but now they know what to expect and there's a level of comfort with how we do things," he said. "I am really happy with what they've brought back and that allowed us to do things early that we could have never done last year."
Teams are allowed 20 contact days during the summer. And with June being busy with camps and leagues in other sports, Helias only used five of its allotted 20 contact days in the month. That left 15 for July.
"We hit it hard last month and I think it paid dividends," Hentges said.
The Crusaders will play in a Jamboree next Friday hosted by Blair Oaks in Wardsville.
Helias will open the season Friday, Aug. 30, at home against Hannibal. Game time is 7 p.m.