LAKEVILLE - Summer high school football scrimmages, especially the first one for new to the school coaches can be more valuable than one may know. Such was the case for Matt Thacker, newly hired head football coach at LaVille Jr-Sr High School. LHS met with Churubusco, New Prairie, and West Noble for a THUD Scrimmage recently at Lancer Field. "I thought the scrimmage went in three phases," said Thacker, who comes to Lakeville from Wawasee High School.  "The main thing is that everyone comes out healthy for all teams.  You hate to see a kid get hurt at all, but especially this early in the season.  As far as us as a team we wanted to get ourselves on film and see what we have been practicing will look on film.  There were some good things and not so good things, but everything is fixable as far as scheme, timing, motions and snap counts.   "Our first scrimmage (v Churubusco) felt like both teams were unsure if we were truly doing this or not, but it picked up for us and I thought we started to do some good things on O and D that got our blood flowing a little.  In the second scrimmage (v West Noble) both teams had a great respect for each other, but got after each other and that was great to see.  In the third scrimmage (v New Prairie) it was pretty clear that we wanted to get after it and we did not care who the opponent was." Thacker brings 'The Flexbone' offense from Syracuse, IN. And as the 2026 edition of LaVille football makes adjustments to some new wrinkles, along with new coaches, the Lancer boss got some things on film. "The main thing is that everyone comes out healthy for all teams," explained Thacker.  "You hate to see a kid get hurt at all, but especially this early in the season.  As far as us as a team we wanted to get ourselves on film and see what we have been practicing will look on film.  There were some good things and not so good things, but everything is fixable as far as scheme, timing, motions and snap counts."  Coach Thacker and his coaching staff were able to get plenty of what seems like a 40ish player roster into live action during the THUD Scrimmage. "Three things impressed me the most," said Thacker who brings a 32-50 overall record into his ninth season as a head football coach. "One being that when things didn't go well there was no one that got down, it was a next play mentality and that is extremely important. Two we kept getting better from one scrimmage to the next. Three our conditioning at this point seems pretty good.  Not a single person complained or even looked tired." We also had a chance to ask the LaVille skipper about how he felt the team fared - both offensively and defensively. "Offensively, we have a way to go, but we showed some good things and we were able to move the ball on the ground and in the air," said Thacker.  "There were some big plays missed on the ground and pass game from the film, but that is why we did it to show what we need to work on.  Our attention will be to being more consistent with our possessions, but we're in the middle of the process and this is the fun part of that process, because we got to see some light bulbs go off on what we're trying to do offensively.  Most importantly, we must value the football and cannot turn the ball over.  Defensively, I thought we got after it pretty well.  Our defense is predicated on flying to the football and keeping things rather simple, but making things look confusing to the offense.  I am sure all three teams would game plan differently if they had a week to prepare as would we, but I was truly happy with how fast, physical and relentless we played." As the summer moves into July and IHSAA Moratorium week, we asked Thacker about where he feels his crew is through June and heading into July.  "Everything that we have installed, talked about and been doing during June looked like it should at this point of the summer and now we know what we need to work on going into July, which is a huge help heading into Scrimmage #2 and TMT camp at the end of the month.  What impressed me most however, is that our kids love the game and they love to play the game. "I can't wait until the moratorium is over and we can get back at it!" LHS is set to open the season with a scrimmage on August 14 against Prairie Heights. Start time is scheduled for 7pm at Lancer Field.