EDENTON — The main objective of preseason football at any level is for a team to find out what does and doesn’t work. Some of that can be discovered in practice, but a sure-fire way to highlight some shortcomings is by lining up against another team.

Washington did that for the first time on Wednesday morning at Holmes. It was the first time the Pam Pack scrimmaged against another team. It was a tough assignment, too. The Aces are a well-coached team, priding themselves in their knowledge and discipline, among other things.

“They have six to eight on-staff coaches. They have their hands on those kids every day,” coach Sport Sawyer said. “They had their kids ready to play and do some things. We’re at a school where, last year, we had not too many on-staff coaches. This year we have three.

“I’m not knocking our staff at all, but you can tell that when you take a group of people and they’re on the same page, it’s going to show. Going against them, they knew football and they knew how to get after it. Our guys are going to learn from that, myself included.”

Between practicing the prior evening and the late decision to move the location to Edenton, there were some lapses in effort that Sawyer wasn’t happy with. Mistakes are to be expected at this time in the year, but Sawyer doesn’t believe there are excuses for a lack of effort.

“You’re going to make mistakes, scheme-wise, because you’re putting it together,” he said. “What I really didn’t like was that some of the guys’ effort, they lacked being physical. Some of them were getting after it and being real physical. Some of them did not respond to it at all.”

Because of that, Sawyer has reoriented himself and the coaching staff a bit. The team — especially on offense — is going through a rebuilding phase after what it lost up front. Sawyer and company have no problem opting for consistent effort over experience.

“We’re going to find some competitors on our team,” Sawyer said. “I did not like (Wednesday). … When you’re competing, you’re either going to win or lose. If our guys compete as hard as they can and play as hard as they can, you rarely ever lose. … If it’s not in them, it doesn’t matter who they are or what they are. We’ve got to get them off the field.”

The morning saw the Pam Pack work on inside runs, outside runs, passing and one-on-one drills. Sawyer enjoyed some of the work done by tight ends Logan Little and Cooper Anderson, as well as receiver Malik Bell.

However, the experienced Pam Pack defense fell short of expectations. With the two team’s being evenly matched in terms of size, it again came back to witch side was playing harder.

“There were some missed assignments in the secondary and up front on the defense,” Sawyer said. “One-on-ones I did not like at all. Nobody. I thought, one-on-ones, (Holmes) was more physical and more motivated then we were. I did not like it at all.”

The team had Wednesday night off after the morning scrimmage. The Pam Pack will get back to business on Thursday with the first order of business being to review the tape from Edenton.