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Looming thunderstorms impacted many scrimmages in the area Thursday. In Port Arthur, the Titans opted to stick to their 7 p.m. start for varsity against Spring Legacy.

While the Titans avoided lightning delays, the team got a chance to deal with wet conditions as rain poured during the majority of the scrimmage. Memorial Head Coach Brian Morgan said the team went into the scrimmage with the mindset of getting more reps for the second string and less experienced players.

“We wanted to figure out where they are on their path of development,” he said. “We got that done. The added benefit was that we got to go through a whole rain situation. Those are things you can’t simulate. In the first quarter, it was pouring down. You had to snap and throw a wet ball. We were in the locker room for a while and had to come out for a quick warm up, just like a lightning delay. I thought that was a benefit. In a long season, that is probably going to come across at some point.”

Morgan feels his team is on track heading into a Week 1 matchup against Port Neches-Groves.

“Getting better is the constant for everybody,” Morgan said. “I told our guys from the time we start practice, we have six weeks until district starts. We have to get better each week. We made it through three of the weeks. We have to be better this week against Port Neches. Then we have to be better the next week against Nederland before district starts. There is a lot of growth all around and we have been operating good.”

Morgan was pleasantly surprised by how well the players handled the rain.

“It wasn’t really ever an issue,” he said. “The wet ball wasn’t an issue. The biggest thing was the growth from the young running backs (Ja’Coryn Baker and Amante Martin). They are young but they grow week-to-week and even quarter-to-quarter. They are constantly learning because they are young. They don’t have as many live reps under their belts. That is pleasing to see.”

Morgan said the scrimmage should help the team build reliable depth.

“It is not like you can get more players,” he said. “You got the players you got. You just try to develop them more and handle some things the right way. You have to know that those guys, at some point, are going to be playing for you. They are going to be in some key plays at key moments. That was our mindset for that scrimmage. I think we benefited from it from that standpoint.”