Entering his second season as head coach for the Hazen football team, Drew Oliver likes what he sees.

“In the last two weeks we’ve got some pretty big improvements,” Oliver said. “That’s a product of our success last year is that we got some new guys on the field.”

The Highlanders took more important steps toward learning a complex Wing-T offense at a four-way scrimmage June 17 at Hiawatha Field in Seattle.

Hazen played Newport, Lake Stevens and West Seattle each 16 plays (eight varsity, eight JV) on offense and defense. Then the teams took part in goal-line work.

“The point here is to apply the things we did in the spring to the field,” Oliver said. “This spring we stepped up our competition quite a bit, but I’m proud of them. They battled through the whole thing, going up against 4A competition. It’s a different ball game up there.”

Lake Stevens went 5-5 in the WesCo 4A last season. West Seattle went 6-4 in the Metro League, and Newport went 5-4 in the KingCo 4A.

The Highlanders finished 7-4 last season, making it to the 3A state preliminary round. The team went 7-1 in league play to finish second. A 28-14 win against Kennedy Catholic Oct. 22 was the team’s highlight. It was Hazen’s first victory against Kennedy in 18 years.

Hazen had another scrimmage at Tahoma June 12 and will now settle into practice, conditioning and weight lifting until Aug. 1.

Some standouts during the spring practices and scrimmages were Jordan Bumgarner, Isaiah Talley and Eric Jacobs.

Oliver brought in a new offensive coordinator this season, though he expects the transition to go smoothly.

“The terminology is a little different,” he said. “There is an adjustment period there, but it’s not like we’re starting from the ground up.”