2012 Johnson County Football section

1

Johnson County Football2012

Special supplement to the Times-Review

A New EraBurleson Centennial

ready for first UIL season

From left, TE Curtis Amos, Head Coach Kyle Geller and QB Tanner Hodges.

alvarado • burleson • centennial • godley • grandview • joshua • rio vista

2012 Johnson County Football Thursday, August 30, 2012

2

Mark Jameson, CLTC(817) 641-3306

400 N. Ridgeway [email protected]

You can’t LOLif you’re R.I.P.

Nearly a third of teens polled admitted to texting while driving*.

Because motor vehicle accidents are the #1 killer of our teens*, it’s time to start talking about what we’re doing behind the wheel. Call or stop by for your own copy of the Allstate Parent-Teen Driving Contract. It will help you and your teen start the conversation.

© 2010 Allstate Insurance Company, Northbrook, IL.*Statistic based on Insurance Institute for Highway Safety Fatality Facts 2009 and The Allstate Foundation Teen Driving Report 2009.

Johnson County Football 2012is a publication of the

Cleburne Times-Review

Johnson County Football 2012Publisher . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Kay HelmsManaging Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Dale GosserDesign/Layout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A .J . CrispSports Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A .J . CrispContributing Photographers . . . . . . . Laura ZamoraContributing Writers . . . . . . . . . . . . Laura ZamoraCover Photo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .A .J . CrispAdvertising . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Kay Helms, Mgr .Advertising Executives . . . . . . . . . . . . Eric Faught

Sherri Jouet Tammy Kay Alyssa DyerGraphics/cover . . . . . . . . . . . . . Ashley Garey, Mgr .

Cleburne Times-ReviewTo subscribe

817-645-2441Fax: 817-645-4020108 S . Anglin St .Cleburne, TexasP .O . Box 1569

Cleburne, TX 76033

Johnson County Football IndexPage 4-5 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . AlvaradoPage 6-7 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .BurlesonPage 8-9 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . CentennialPage 10-11 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . GodleyPage 12-13 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . GrandviewPage 14-15 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . JoshuaPage 16-17 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Rio VistaPage 20 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Team schedules

2012 Johnson County FootballThursday, August 30, 2012

3

The 2011 football season in Johnson County was one to remember, especially for the fans of the Alvarado Indians, who made a run all the way to the Class 3A state champi-onship game .

Despite losing to Chapel Hill, the Indians gave their fans a season they’d never forget . While it’s tough to make back-to-back ap-pearances in the state championship in any sport at any level, Alvarado is aiming to do just that, and I wouldn’t bet against Coach Jeff Dixon and the purple and gold .

Cleburne rebounded from a 1-9 campaign in 2010 with a 4-6 mark last year, missing the playoffs in the final week of the regular season . With a new head coach in Jeff Mer-ket and senior quarterback Quade Coward, the Jackets expect to end a decade-long playoff drought in 2012 .

But the Jackets aren’t the only team expecting to still be playing after week 10, as District 8-4A rivals Burleson, Centennial

and Joshua all have high expectations of their own .

Elks’ Coach Gary McElroy said that any season that doesn’t end with a playoff berth is a huge disappointment, and with star run-ning back Ayinde Alaajiy back for his senior season, Burleson may be a tough out .

The buzz surrounding the Centennial Spartans is as loud as can be . That’s because this marks the first season Centennial is play-ing in an official UIL district after playing an “outlaw” schedule last year . The Spartans had a successful season last year, and Coach Kyle Geller hopes to build on that . Geller’s expectations are for his Spartans to be in the playoffs, as well, despite the Centennial football program still in its infant stages .

While Joshua has struggled the past few seasons, the Owls’ losing ways are in the past, said Coach Jerry Bird . He said he is as excited as he’s ever been at Joshua, and the Owls not only look for their first win in two

years, but once they do get that first win, they look to keep the wins coming .

Godley and Grandview both look to con-tinue a high level of regular season success . The Wildcats and Zebras, who have made the playoffs a combined 12 straight years, are picked to finish 1-2 in District 12-2A in any magazine you pick up . Who finishes 1 and who finishes 2 is the big question . The two teams square off in week 10, and judging from their recent success, it could be for the district championship .

For the first time in four years, Rio Vista will have a bit of continuity in its program as Head Coach John Odell returns for a second straight season after the Eagles went through four head coaches in four years .

It should be an intriguing year, for sure .Football season is finally here!

A.J. Crisp can be reached at 817-645-2441, ext. 2334 or [email protected]

A.J. CrispSports Editor

Story lines abound in Johnson County football for 2012

A.J. Crisp/CTRWill Joshua junior quarterback Garrett Hoffman be able to help snap the Owls’ 27-game losing streak and have a successful season?

File photoAfter a state championship game appearance in 2011, how far will senior quarterback Kenny West (18) lead the Alvarado Indians?


4-ALVARADO

By A.J. [email protected]

If the steps that Alvarado has taken the previous couple of years are any indication of what to ex-pect from the Indians this season, it would appear they are headed to a state title .

Two years ago, the Indians lost to Henderson in the Class 3A state quarterfinals, and last year Alvarado lost to Chapel Hill in the Class 3A state championship game . Logic would suggest if Al-varado takes the next step, they’d be state champions, but head coach Jeff Dixon realizes that type of suc-cess doesn’t come easy .

“We won’t slide under any-body’s radar, that’s for sure,” Dix-on said . “Those great programs that win all the time, they don’t always win with talent, they win with guys stepping up and filling roles . We’ve had some good talent over the last couple of years that we’ve lost to graduation . Now it’s these other young men’s turn to step up and we’ll see where we are . I feel very confident that we’ll be just fine .”

The Indians will be hard-pressed to fill the void left by 3,000-yard rusher Wayne Onder-donck, but Alvarado will have a three-year starter at quarterback in Kenny West .

“We’re going to certainly ride his leadership,” Dixon said . “We lost a really good tailback from a year ago . We relied on Wayne quite a bit last year . Well, we’re going to rely on Kenny to do a lot for us this year other than lead, whether

it’s throwing the ball or running the ball, he’ll be very involved with the offense .”

Despite being a run-first foot-ball team out of the I-formation, West threw for 1,800 yards last sea-son . The majority of the offensive line and tight end corps will return, which should help West . Tight ends Jake Geeo and Michael Vanderhoff figure to be intricate pieces to the

Indians’ success on offense both blocking and receiving .

“We run the football,” Dixon said . “We focus a lot on tight ends, and run play-action pass . Kenny threw for a lot of yards last year, so we do throw the ball . We’re going to establish the run first, and Kenny manages that very well . We’ll ask him to throw the football and to run it, as well . He’ll be involved quite a

bit this year .”Dixon said they will move last

year’s starting fullback, Lee Hardy, to the starting running back posi-tion, and move Hayden Walraven to fullback .

While the offense will focus on trying to replace Onderdonck’s production, a big area of concern for Alvarado will be on the defen-sive side of the ball, which lost the

majority of its starters to gradua-tion and will be inexperienced .

“We have a lot of experience on offense, but not a lot on defense . We are young defensively,” Dixon said . “We’ve got Marcus McNeil, he’s a returning free safety and he’s been on varsity since a freshman . And we’ve got Marcus Villareal, who’s a senior outside linebacker . Everybody else will be young on the defense .”

Dixon said that the secondary, especially, will be inexperienced and young, but he expects players to step up and fill those roles .

“The goal is to plug players who have been in the program and let them step in and play,” Dixon said .

The Indians went undefeat-ed until their state title matchup against Chapel Hill last year, but an undefeated regular season will be a tougher task to accomplish this season as Class 4A powerhouse Stephenville makes the move down to Class 3A to join Alvarado and a tough-nosed Glen Rose team .

“Stephenville has a great histo-ry,” Dixon said . “They were a good 4A team, so stepping down certain-ly brings with it challenges . We’re looking forward to it and I can as-sure you that we’ll go play them . Who knows what will happen, but we’re going to get after their tail .

“By the time we get to Stephen-ville, hopefully we’ve built some confidence and gotten better . Cha-pel Hill and Henderson, they can play with anybody . It’s not like this is our first time to go against

Indians’ 2012 path to success presents new challenges

File photoAlvarado Head Coach Jeff Dixon said he likes playing in December, and he hopes to lead his Indians to a third straight year of doing just that.

See INDIANS, Page 18


5-ALVARADO

Creating Better Places to Live!

GoodLuck

On Your Season

Indians!A Great Place To Work.www.jameshardie.com


Alvarado’s Kenny West and Marcus McNeil, both se-niors, will have a combined seven years of varsity experi-ence this season .

McNeil, who plays safety full-time and sees some ac-tion as a running back, has been a member of the var-sity Indians since his fresh-man year . West has been the starting quarterback since his sophomore season .

“I’m just looking for us to having a good run with my fellow seniors,” McNeil said . “We’re hoping some juniors and sophomores can step up and help us have the run we had last year .”

McNeil has spent his en-tire life in Alvarado, and said the majority of his fellow senior classmates have spent the most of their lives grow-ing up in Alvarado, as well, and they are looking to a spe-cial season together in their final year as Indians .

“We grew up together and have played together forev-er,” he said .

Expectations for the In-dians this season are as high as seemingly possible after making an appearance in the state championship game and semifinals over the past two years . West said he is used to the expectations and they don’t bother him .

“Since I was a sopho-more, expectations have been pretty high,” West said . “And now with the past two years we’ve been deep in the playoffs, expectations are even higher now . The town is behind us . Every-one expects us to go far . The coaches have our backs and they expect us to do good .

“Of course, with us going to state the year before and

high levels years before, you start off the year and you’re not as good as you were when you ended the previous sea-son, but you know what it takes to get to that level . I expect, myself, as a leader to lead everyone and help get the team to the same level again .”

West, McNeil and Alvara-do Head Coach Jeff Dixon all echoed the same goal of making it to the playoffs and playing into December . For this team, the majority of the players on the roster wouldn’t know otherwise .

“We’re looking to play in the postseason,” McNeil said . “But we’re also looking

to play for one another and to play for the man above . Looking to get better each week and standing together as a team .”

With three years of ex-perience entering his senior season, McNeil, along with fellow senior defender, Mar-cus Villareal, takes on lead-ership roles on the defense . And West, with two years of experience entering his senior season, will lead the offense .

“I take being a leader very seriously,” West said . “I have to as the quarterback of this team .”

West is 26-3 during his tenure as the team’s starting quarterback and passed for

1,590 yards and 20 touch-downs .

“We’re a run-first team and we mainly run the ball out of the I-formation,” West said . “Even though we’re a running team, when the coaches call to throw the ball, I trust the O-line to block and the receivers to catch the ball, and I trust myself to make the right play .”

Alvarado opens the 2012 season against Bridgeport, and West thinks it’ll be a good matchup .

“It’s a good test to see where we’re at,” he said . “They’re well-coached . They’ll be a good measuring stick for us .”

File photoAlvarado senior Marcus McNeil (11) has four years of varsity experience and looks to lead the Indians deep in the playoffs one last year.

Alvarado to rely on seasoned leaders


6-BURLESON


Playoffs or bust . That’s the expectation set forth by Burleson’s new head coach, Gary McElroy, for every football season .

McElroy takes command of the Elks this year after serving as the offensive coordina-tor in recent years, as the Elks’ former head coach, Jason Tucker, left for a position at Saginaw Chisholm Trail High School .

“I fully expect for us to be a playoff team,” McElroy said . “That’s what we’re going to compete for year in and year out, and that’s what motivates me . That’s what motivates our staff, that’s what we tell our kids, that’s what we’re geared for and anything less will be a disappointment for us . The year that we don’t make the playoffs won’t be a success-ful season, it doesn’t matter if we finish 7-3 and miss the playoffs .”

Burleson went 6-5 in 2011 and lost to Waco Midway in the first round . Midway ad-vanced to the Class 4A state championship game .

Perhaps the biggest challenge facing Bur-leson this year is the Elks return only two starters from last year: Ayinde Alaajiy on of-fense and Cameron Chamberlain on defense .

The Elks will rely heavily on running back Alaajiy, who was the district newcomer of the year last season . Alaajiy ran for 1,319 yards and 11 touchdowns as a sophomore .

Burleson will have a new signal-caller this season as former quarterback Barrett Cain is now at McMurry State . Junior Isaiah Hall will take control of the Elks’ offense, and McElroy is confident in his abilities .

“He’s a very knowledgeable kid,” McEl-roy said . “He’s a student of the game . He commands the offense well and he’ll do fine this year .

“I wasn’t sure about [his dual-threat abil-

ity] in the beginning, but . . . he did a great job this summer getting in the weight room and conditioning his body to where it needs to be . I think he is going to be a dual-threat quarterback for us . We’ll be able to utilize his

legs as well as his arm .”Along with Alaajiy, Chamberlain and

Hall, McElroy said he expects Austin Craw-ford, Chris Rybka and B .J . Mays to step up and become key contributors for Burleson .

“Crawford plays right tackle and he’s a great kid,” McElroy said . “He’s big, physi-cal and smart . He’s going to anchor that of-fensive line . Rybka plays defensive end for us and he’s a big, physical, athletic kid . He’s really going to be a force for us defensively . Mays plays corner and wide receiver, and he’s our fastest and most athletic kid on the team .”

The Elks, like many teams in Johnson County, run a multiple-based offense . They’ll use multiple-receiver sets and primarily op-erate out of the shotgun .

On defense, Burleson primarily plays the 3-4 .

While McElroy has his sights set on the postseason, he knows that in District 8-4A, it won’t be easy .

“I think Waco High and Everman are al-ways in the mix,” he said . “I think you al-ways have to account for them . But it’s not a district where the teams are greatly sepa-rated . There are eight teams in district and it’s an eight-team race for four spots . I would be hard-pressed to say someone’s one, two, three or four . It’s going to be an eight-team race .”

The Elks open their season at 7:30 p .m . on Friday at Azle . Burleson’s home opener is Sept . 7 against Haltom, and the Elks’ District 8-4A opener is Sept . 28 against Everman .

A.J. Crisp/CTROne of the strengths for the Burleson Elks in 2012 will be their play in the trenches, Coach Gary McElroy said.

Expectations always high for new Burleson head coach



One of the biggest story lines in Dis-trict 8-4A and Johnson County will be the birth and evolution of the Burleson High School Elks versus the Centennial High School Spartans rivalry .

Centennial enters its first season of UIL district play in only its third year of existence, and the February realignment placed both schools in the same district, essentially creating a cross-town rival-ry between two schools less than four miles apart .

“Everybody knows that Burleson High was basically split in half with the creation of Centennial,” said Burle-son head coach Gary McElroy . “I think there are some that feel that Burleson High has been severely affected by that . Could we use 3,000 kids in school? Sure, but we have 1,500, and we’re go-ing to coach our rears off with those kids .

“If BHS and CHS turns out being a big rivalry, that’s awesome . That’s good for the kids from both schools . That’s great for the entire community . I welcome it, and I’m sure [Centennial] Coach [Kyle] Geller does, too .”

Despite being rivals, the coaches’ opinions of the others’ respective team are mirror images of one another .

“I wish Burleson High School noth-ing but the best,” Geller said . “I’ll pull for them every game until week 10 .”

McElroy echoed Geller’s feelings nearly word-for-word .

“I hope we’re both in the playoffs,” McElroy said . “I have no problem help-ing him out any way possible and I’m sure he feels the same way . He’s a good man, a good coach and he does a good

job . I hope they beat everybody but us .”While the excitement level surround-

ing the new rivalry is apparent, Geller said that Burleson isn’t on his mind .

“We’ll worry about the Burleson Elks in [week] 10,” Geller said . “I wish them nothing but the best up until that point . I know our seniors and their se-niors want to play each other and have been waiting for it . But if we went 0-9 and beat them to go 1-9, would that be a good season? It is what it is . It’s a cross-town rivalry and it’s going to be like

that forever . We can’t worry about that right now . We’ve got to worry about En-nis High School in zero week .”

The seniors at BHS and CHS shared a locker room as freshmen before Cen-tennial’s first year in 2010, and both Geller and McElroy said they realize that the seniors are looking forward to finally playing each other .

“It ought to be a high-octane game,” McElroy said .

The teams square off Nov . 9 at BISD Stadium .

7-BURLESON


A Great Place To Work.www.jameshardie.com

A.J. Crisp/CTRBurleson Coach Gary McElroy is well aware of the impending rivalry between Burleson High School and Centennial High School.

A rivalry is born

2012 marks first round of chs versus bhs

Nov. 9, 2012


8-BURLESON


Burleson Centennial begins its first sea-son of UIL district play this year after play-ing an outlaw schedule last year as the Spar-tans went 6-3-1 in just its second year of existence . While the program is in its infant stages, Coach Kyle Geller said he expects the Spartans to be playoff contenders .

“A playoff spot gives us extra incentive and extra motivation,” Geller said . “We’ve been waiting for that for two long years . Also, the level of competition is going to be a lot stiffer and our kids have to recognize that . I told them the very first day of prac-tice, we have to prepare like a championship team .

“I told them you’ve got to watch extra film, you’ve got to know your assignments, study your scouting reports, and those types of things . That wins games as much as being out on the practice field banging against each other . I think we’ve gotten better in those ar-eas . I think if we try to be our very best every week, we’re going to be OK .”

Despite being in its early stages, the expectations surrounding the Centennial Spartans football program are high . Many football fans, including the famous Dave Campbell’s Texas Football Magazine peg the Spartans as a playoff team . But Geller isn’t interested in getting worked up in all of the hype .

“I tell our kids that the people who make those predictions are not coaches or haven’t ever seen you practice,” he said . “That’s just for fun . That’s for people outside of the teams that do that . I told them I’ve been picked last and finished first, and I’ve been picked first and not finished first . Again, it’s just something people put out there, and it’s

great for excitement and creates a buzz, and that’s what it’s for .”

Geller, who helped build a football pro-gram earlier in his coaching career, said that his goals for the team don’t only revolve around wins and losses .

“I just want to coach a team that’s hun-

gry,” he said . “I want to coach a team that plays together and sticks side by side with one another . That’s it . It’s not about having X number of wins . We all want to win ev-ery game . I’ve coached teams that won a lot of games and it was just miserable to coach . I’ve coached teams that didn’t have a lot of

talent that would work together and had a good attitude, and we won a ton of games . Every coach wants to be the best you can be .

“I’ve talked to different coaches that have opened new schools, and some of

Spartans’ aim is high in first UIL season

See SPARTANS, Page 18

File photoCentennial’s team philosophy on defense in 2012 is “swarm and punish,” and that is how Coach Kyle Geller said his defense will play.



For the Centennial Spar-tans to make the playoffs in their first season of UIL district play, they will need a number of players to step up and lead the team, on and off the field, and Coach Kyle Geller said that he has players who fill that role: quarterback Tanner Hodges and tight end Curtis Amos .

“Guys like Tanner are what motivate me as a coach,” Geller said . “You want to coach well for him . He cer-tainly has paid his dues . He deserves success . I want him and all our seniors [to experi-ence] success . It’s been a long road for them . They were 0-10 as freshmen . It would be really special for them to have a successful year after going 0-10 as freshmen then two years of non-district play building a program, this would be really special . It motivates me .”

Hodges led the Spartans to a 6-3-1 record playing an outlaw schedule last season . He threw for 1,017 yards and 14 touchdowns . Six of those passing touchdowns went to Amos, who had 301 receiving yards as a sophomore .

“I want to show that we weren’t as bad as we showed we were as freshmen,” Hodg-es said regarding the 0-10 record . “I want to show that we are good, that we’re real, . . . and that we’re a contender . We want to show that we can be just as good as anyone else in our district .”

Hodges will lead a group of 26 seniors, the first senior class in Centennial history, and he’s looking forward to establishing a tradition for younger Spartan football players to follow .

“We’re trying to set a tra-

dition that we work hard in practice, that we’re not going to be a mediocre [program],” he said . “We’re working to be a great program and we’re looking forward to laying down a foundation for that .”

When asked about outside perception from what others think of the Spartans entering their first season in district play, Hodges pointed out one publication in particular that Centennial is using as moti-vation .

“It’s kind of good to be the underdog,” he said . “It moti-

vates us when people doubt us . We’re picked to finish seventh in the Friday Night Football magazine, and it motivates us to prove them wrong and show them we can make the playoffs .”

Geller said he wrote a let-ter to Tanner during the sum-mer motivating his quarter-back, and his expectations of his signal caller are high .

“He’s certainly got great ability,” he said . “He’s got a bright future ahead of him . He can run . I’d probably consider him more of a pro-style type

player . But he can pull the ball down and make some-thing happen . He’s pretty nif-ty with the ball, but we won’t run him a ton .”

“Tanner’s a good leader . The best thing about Tan-ner as far as his leadership qualities is that he’s a shin-ing example for everybody . He works hard, he’s up here in the offseason throwing on his own, he gets the receiv-ers together . I don’t hear any negative stuff out of his

9-BURLESON

File photoCentennial quarterback Tanner Hodges (18) and running back DeMarcus Williams (22) hope to lead the Spartans to the playoffs in their first season of UIL district play.

See HODGES, Page 18

Centennial to feature a trio of stars offensively


10-GODLEY


Godley, like their District 12-2A rival, Grandview, is in the midst of a long playoff run . The Wildcats are looking to make the postseason for the sixth straight season .

The Wildcats have experienced a wealth of success in the regular season over the past several years, including a 32-4 record under Head Coach Randy Brawner the past three seasons .

“We’ve had a pretty good stretch of winning,” Brawner said .

Despite the regular season suc-cess, which includes high rankings in numerous state polls, Godley has had its share of struggles in the play-offs .

“We just want to get in [the play-offs],” Brawner said . “We want to be one of those three teams in dis-trict to get in the playoffs . Hopefully once we get in the playoffs, we can get on a roll and win some games . I don’t want to put a specific number of wins on the season, but obviously making the playoffs . . . and making a run is goal No . 1 .”

If Godley does make a playoff run, it’ll be with a different version of Wildcat football compared to its predecessors . Godley has averaged 18 seniors on the team the past three seasons, but this year the Wildcats will only have eight seniors .

“We’ve got a real small senior class this year and we will be pretty young,” Branwer said . “Almost ev-ery one of those seniors will be play-ing, if not on both sides of the ball, at least one side full-time .

“We lost 18 seniors from last year, and a lot of them have went on to further their career . They’re go-ing to be tough to replace . Probably the biggest concern coming into this football season is replacing our skill kids . We lost a lot of good skill kids from last year’s team .”

Replacing talented players due to graduation is a yearly obstacle for all high school coaches in every sport, but Brawner said they have some talented young players who will be counted on this year .

“We have some young guys moving up from the JV that haven’t really been counted on in varsity situations, and we need them to perform,” Branwer said . “So that’s going to be the key to the season is how quickly those younger kids can come on the scene and make an im-pact on a Friday night level .”

While Godley lost a lot of tal-ent at the skilled positions, Brawner is confident in what he has in the trenches on both sides of the ball .

“I think we’ve got a chance to

have a really good offensive line and defensive line,” he said . “We’re not really deep at any position . The depth at all positions, offense and defense, is a concern . I really think the strength of our team will be the offensive and defensive lines .”

Aside from a lack of senior pres-ence compared to previous years, the other glaring difference between this year’s team and last year’s will be speed — or lack thereof .

“I think what fans are going to see is that we don’t have quite the

explosiveness that we’ve had in re-cent years,” Brawner said . “Last year, we probably had six kids that ran a 4 .6 [40-yard dash] or better, and that number will probably be only one kid this year . The overall team speed will probably be the big-gest glaring difference between this year’s team and last year’s team .

While Godley gives up an edge in speed, something the team has counted on for several years, Brawner said that the Wildcats will

A.J. Crisp/CTRLeft: Ricky Jean will receive the majority of the carries as Godley’s starting running back in 2012. Right: Jay Mathis moves under center after play-ing wide receiver for the Wildcats in 2011.

Young Wildcats look to take Godley over the hump

See GODLEY, Page 18


11-GODLEY


GoodLuck

On Your Season

Wildcats!A Great Place To Work.www.jameshardie.com


When Godley Wildcat fans go to the season opener on Friday at Ferris, they will no-tice a new, but familiar, face at quarterback . That familiar face would be Jay Mathis, who played wide receiver last year .

And when Mathis receives the play calls this year from the offensive coordinator, he’ll be receiving them from someone he’s known his en-tire life — his brother, Billy Mathis .

The bond between Billy and Jay goes beyond broth-erhood and that of a typical quarterback-offensive coordi-nator relationship . Last year during football season, their father, Jack Mathis, passed away .

“Billy’s had to have more input in Jay’s life due to the passing of their father,” said Godley Head Coach Randy Brawner .

“It’s great having my big brother as a coach,” Jay said . “He’s a really big influence on me . He takes a big spot in my life and he reminds me a lot of our dad .”

While the two share that special bond, Billy said he has to make sure and treat his little brother just like the other players on the team, but hav-ing that special relationship does help with their work and play on the field .

“I’ve got to make sure that I’m not harder on him just because he is my brother since I’ve been used to beat-ing up on him as the little brother growing up,” Billy, 34, said with a laugh . “But I have to look at him as one of our players . He’s the same as all of those guys out there . He listens to me well and does a

good job .“We have that brother

bond . He trusts me and I trust him . Last year with Rhett [Brawner], we grew into that bond because we worked to-gether every day . But with Jay and I, luckily we’re brothers so we’ve had that bond since day one . It’s been a good mesh between he and I . He knows what I expect and I know what he’s able to do .”

Changing positions is al-ways a hard thing to do at any level, but Jay is ahead of the game in several areas, includ-ing some prior experience at quarterback as he has played the position before .

“He’s been doing well,” Billy said . “He’s still young, and he’s still learning . He’s got a lot of kinks to work out . Overall, he’s doing a good job, though . We’re working on fix-

ing all of those little things that you have to fix to be a good quarterback . He’s run-ning the offense efficiently . To be the big-time playmaker that we need him to be, he still has some work to do . Grow-ing up, he played quarterback . He played in Pee-Wee and junior high . During his fresh-men year, he also played quar-terback . Last year he got in at the end of some games and he did a good job .”

While Jay, 17, saw some snaps at quarterback last sea-son, he spent the majority of the year last season catching passes from Rhett Brawner, not throwing them . But that experience at wide receiver should give Jay some help in his transition back under cen-ter .

“Luckily for him, playing the receiver position last year,

he knows all of the routes, so that’s helped him,” Billy said . “But still, the speed of the game at playing quarterback, and being able to get through his reads [is new] . He’s doing better at it, but we still have a lot of work to do . He’s doing a good job of knowing where people are supposed to be and putting the ball where it’s sup-posed to be .”

Even with his knowledge of routes and where the wide receivers line up, Brawner said that the quarterback po-sition is so responsible with everything offensively, that it will take some time before Jay is fully settled into the po-sition .

“He’s got to do so much pre-snap,” Brawner said . “He didn’t have to worry about the run game at receiver last year,

A.J. Crisp/CTRJay Mathis, left, and Billy Mathis, right, share a connection that goes beyond a quarter-back-offensive coordinator relationship — they’re brothers. Godley Head Coach Randy Brawner is also pictured.

See MATHIS, Page 18

Godley’s QB shares special bond with coordinator


12-GRANDVIEW

Go Get 'Em ZebrasYou're #1

1828 N. MainCleburne, TX817-202-0430

Mon.- Sat. 8-5Closed Sun.

OwnersClark & Tina Russell

Kevin & Susan Childress


The Grandview Zebras will look to make an impressive eighth straight trip to the post-season in 2012, but if it happens, it will come under new Head Coach Casey Walraven .

The Zebras’ previous head coach, Aubrey Sims, left Grandview to take the head coach-ing position at Snyder High School in west Texas, and Walraven, who had been offensive coordinator for the past seven years, slides in as head coach for the black and white .

“Offensively, there’s obviously not going to be many changes,” Walraven said . “There’s a few adjustments we need to make for per-sonnel reasons . And defensively, we’ve kept our staff intact, so there’s not a whole lot of change there, either . But what we do have is

some inexperienced players coming out that need to gain some experience at the varsity level .”

The inexperience Walraven referred to is one of the biggest hurdles facing the Zebras this season, especially on the offensive side of the ball, where Grandview only has two full-time starters returning from last year’s team that went 8-2 .

“We have a couple offensive players that rotated, but for the most part, we only have two experienced offensive players returning from last year,” Walraven said . “On the offen-sive side, it’s something we were well aware of coming into the season . We just have to find the strengths we have and go from there .

“The inexperience is pretty well dispersed through the entire offense . But that’s not to say that they haven’t been in the system or played .

It’s just seeing the speed of going from JV to varsity, it takes a little adjusting . They saw that [in a scrimmage on Aug . 16] against Glen Rose .”

While the Zebras may be inexperienced of-fensively, Walraven said that the defense has plenty of experience and should be fairly stout this season .

“Defensively, we’re ahead of the game,” he said . “We’ve got some experience on that side, and we’re progressing at the rate we should . … Our linebackers, all three of them, should be the strength of our defense . You’ve got Caleb Armstrong, Caleb Hollingsworth and Peyton Mayhan . All three of those have been starters the last three years . They’re extremely experienced . It’s great to have your lineback-ers be that experienced .

“The secondary will need a little work .

They’re a little inexperienced . But the D-line, specifically Austin Wylie, our defensive end, is going to be something to watch, too . He’s pretty special .”

Armstrong, Hollingsworth, Mayhan and Wylie all earned all-district honors last season .

Last season, Grandview lost to Dainger-field in the playoffs for the second year in a row, but despite their lack of success against the Tigers, Walraven said he would gladly play them again come playoff time .

“If we can play Daingerfield again, we’d be in good shape because that’d be in the state championship because we got put in different regions [after realignment],” Walraven said with a laugh . “They’re a great team with rich tradition and history .”

While Walraven and his Zebras would

A.J. Crisp/CTRCasey Walraven, right, takes over head coaching duties at Grandview, while quarterback Ryan Breton, left, looks to build on last year’s success which earned him district MVP.

Zebras hope experience at QB and defense results in 8th straight postseason

See ZEBRAS, Page 19


13-GRANDVIEW


Best Of Luck On

Your Season Zebras!



Leadership is an important quality in all sports . Leader-ship from coaches, especially high school football, is ex-tremely critical . But when a coach can rely on two lead-ers on the field in the form of experienced players, one on offense and one on defense, it has the makings for a success-ful season before the team even steps on the field .

“Ryan Breton and Caleb Armstrong are definitely the leaders of the team,” said Grandview Head Coach Casey Walraven . “Those are the two who lead our offense and defense, and they’re both getting looks from colleges .”

When your leaders are not only experienced, but also the best players on the team, it’s the best scenario a coach can dream of .

“Those two, they know they’re leaders,” Walraven said . “They know they can play . They don’t need to do more than we’re asking them to do . They just need to do their part and lead in that role and not put so much pressure on themselves . They’re going to make plays .”

Breton, the Zebras’ quar-terback, is the reigning district MVP, and Armstrong, the Ze-bras’ middle linebacker, was an all-district performer last season, as well, as he racked up 115 tackles .

Breton threw for 2,238 yards, 24 touchdowns and only six interceptions with a QB rating of 135 last year . In the Zebras’ 49-22 win over Chilton last season, Breton threw for 377 yards and five touchdowns . In Grandview’s 35-3 win over Eustace, Bret-on showed he can run the ball as well as he can throw it as he had five carries for 133

yards and a touchdown . And while he’s likely to

play at the next level, he isn’t as concerned about any indi-vidual goals as he is with what the team does this season .

“We want to come out, win district, go to the playoffs and make a good run,” Breton said . “I’d like to play at the next level, but [I’m focused] on just making a good run .”

Being a leader is some-thing that Breton takes as se-rious as his play on the field, and with him being an expe-rienced and successful player as a senior, the team listens .

“My job this year is to be the leader of the offense and take control,” he said . “I have a fun side, but when it’s prac-tice or game time, I take it se-riously and make sure every-body else is there with me .”

While many young ath-

letes have a professional or collegiate player they model their games after or look up to, Breton said he doesn’t have anyone in mind, but Walraven compared his quar-terback’s style of play to the No . 1 overall pick in the 2012 NFL Draft .

“I’d say he’s an Andrew Luck-type of player,” Wal-raven said . “He can tell the line what to do, where the re-ceivers line up . He knows ev-erything . And he’s deceiving-ly fast like Luck . I think he’s that type of a quarterback .

“Ryan is going to do well running and passing . He’s go-ing to be a dual threat . Offen-sively, in the system we have, it takes a lot of commitment, a lot of film study and under-standing reads .”

While Breton keeps com-mand of the offense, Arm-

strong, who led the Zebras with 115 tackles in 2011, always keeps the defense in check .

“He has to make sure the defense is lined up in their correct spots every play or we have the potential to get gashed,” Walraven said . “Ca-leb is going to make a ton of plays . He’s going to be diffi-cult for other teams to block .”

While Armstrong is the leader of the defense, he has two teammates on both sides that he can depend on in line-backers Peyton Mahan and Caleb Hollingsworth . All three starting linebackers have a combined nine years of experience .

“It means a lot to be next to those guys because we all have three years of experi-ence,” Armstrong said . “It helps because we know what we’re doing and we’ve been in certain situations so we’ll know what to do . It helps a lot . I’m really looking for-ward to us coming together as a team on defense .

“I expect us to do real good this year . At first we might have some issues here and there, but towards the end of season, we’ll come togeth-er when it really counts .”

Armstrong not only leads by example during games, practices and in the weight room, but he’s the vocal lead-er and he makes sure every-one on defense is being held accountable, Walraven said .

“If Armstrong and Breton see somebody missing or slacking, they’ll take respon-sibility,” Walraven said . “But that’s not really been a prob-lem here . I’ve never seen a group that dedicated to do the very best they can do every day .

“I’ve been working all summer trying to get people’s

Leading the black and white

A.J. Crisp/CTRSenior linebacker Caleb Armstrong leads the Zebras with his actions on and off the field, Grandview Coach Casey Walraven said.

See BRETON, Page 19


14-JOSHUA


While the Joshua Owls begin the 2012 season with a 27-game los-ing streak hanging over their heads, Coach Jerry Bird said that the losing streak is in the past, and his teams’ expectations for this season are high .

“I don’t think [the losing streak] is weighing heavy on them because we don’t talk about it,” Bird said . “We just believe in seizing the day and making ourselves better every day . When we break that streak, I think the floodgates will open and great things will happen . They be-lieve they can win, and we’re work-ing towards that .”

Despite the 2-28 record during Bird’s first three season at Joshua, he said he “absolutely” loves being the Owls’ head coach and he expects things to turn around sooner rather than later .

“We can only change what’s in the future,” he said . “We teach one play, one minute at a time, where you have an opportunity to do some-thing good . If you’re always looking in the past, you can’t change the fu-ture or what you’re doing in the mo-ment . In coaching and athletics, you have your ups and downs, and the neat thing about is you can build it up and good things will happen .”

One of the biggest components of the Owls’ hopeful turnaround season will come in the form of ju-nior quarterback Garrett Hoffman, who started as a sophomore last sea-son and threw for 1,561 yards and 12 touchdowns while rushing for 360 yards and three touchdowns .

“Offensively, we put a lot of decision-making on his shoulders with our running game and pass-ing game,” Bird said . “I believe that he has the ability to be great . He’s grown up and matured a lot from his sophomore year . He’s got to learn how to be a decision-maker, like a point guard in basketball, and dis-tribute the ball . He doesn’t have to make plays all the time by himself .

He’s such a competitor, he wants to make plays . Once he realizes his job is to distribute the ball and get everybody involved, and not be so hard on himself, he’s got the ability to be as good as anyone we’ve had here at Joshua .

“I believe in his ability 100 per-cent and we’re going to continue putting the offensive decisions in his hand . That’s exciting to know that

you have a quarterback who can do that . We believe in our kids and their ability to make decisions out on the field to take advantage of what the defense gives you .”

Two critical players joining Hoffman in the Owls’ rebuilding season this year will be K .J . Evans and Devon Scoggins .

Both will see time at running back, and both will lead the defense .

The duo combined for nearly 200 tackles last season . In the Owls’ scrimmage against Red Oak on Aug . 17, Evans was relentless in pass rushing, where he recorded two sacks and numerous quarterback hurries .

Colin Radford rounds out the Owls’ three-headed monster at run-ning back . He had 330 rushing yards and three touchdowns to go along with 17 catches for 227 yards and one receiving touchdown .

“We’re going to have three or four of those guys, K .J . Evans, Dev-on Scoggins, and Austin Barna, that just because of our depth we’re go-ing to have to count on both ways,” Bird said . “It’s not what we really would like to do, but to put our-selves in a situation where it gives us a chance to put our best players on the field and win, they need to be there .”

Bird said the work put in during the summer has been the best since he’s been in Joshua . The Owls also went 8-3 in 7-on-7 play at the same league Cleburne participated in at Fort Worth Nolan .

“We have high expectations,” Bird said . “We feel like these kids, the K .J .’s, the Garrett Hoffman’s, they’ve been in our system for three years now . They understand the sys-tem . We’re going to take it one game at a time, but we believe we can have a great season . I’m as excited as I’ve been since I’ve been here .”

The Owls open the season at 7:30 p .m . when they host Fort Worth South Hills . Joshua’s District 8-4A opener is Sept . 28 at Waco Univer-sity .

A.J. Crisp/CTRA host of Joshua defenders tackle a Red Oak player during the Owls’ scrimmage Aug. 17. Coach Jerry Bird said he is encouraged with what he’s seen out of Joshua’s defense.

Owls confident winless streak will end in 2012


15-JOSHUA




Losing can weigh on the best of people . Losing 27 in a row and 28 of your 30 games can be devastating to some, but Joshua head coach Jerry Bird keeps on plugging with a positive at-titude and belief in his Owls .

Despite the Owls’ re-cent history, Bird believes Joshua is prime for a “great season .”

“We just have to play as a team and believe in what we’re doing offensively,” he said . “The thing we talk about is playing with more enthusiasm and excitement . We’re going to be in better shape .”

The energy level sur-rounding the Joshua foot-ball program is much higher than one might envision of a team that’s lost so many games in a row . But at the Owls’ scrimmage against Red Oak on Aug . 17, there was plenty of support in the stands . Attendance at scrim-mages is usually miniscule, but nearly half of the home side of Owl Stadium was filled with Joshua faithful .

“We’re really pushing [community involvement],” Bird said . “We’re doing everything to sell the com-munity . You don’t create a winning program from just within the athletes or coaches . It’s community, it’s administration, it’s par-ents, and we’re really push-ing that . They’re all behind us and believe in what we’re doing, and it makes all the difference in the world . We’re going to turn this thing around as a commu-nity . We’ve worked hard on creating that community support, so we’re excited

about that .”Along with the support

from the community, Josh-ua’s coaching staff un-derwent some changes during the summer, and Bird is ex-cited in what the Owls’ new coaches bring to the table .

“We’ve got some new staff members and it’s really all

gelling together,” he said . “We’ve got a great coach-

ing staff . We have a great group

of kids . We have ab-s o l u t e l y no disci-pline is-sues, they

do what we ask . They

just need to believe in what they’re doing and execute it

on the field, and they have the ability to do that . I be-lieve we’re going to get it done, and once we get it done, we’re just going to keep building on it and we’re going to have a great season, but it’s going to take a lot of hard work .

“Great things are hap-pening here and we’ve just got to turn this thing around, and I believe it will happen 100 percent .”

A.J. Crisp/CTRCoach Jerry Bird, left, is confident in his quarterback’s abilities this year, and with the sup-port of the Joshua community, he said the Owls will turn the football program around.

Bird optimistic amidst Joshua’s hardships


16-RIO VISTA



By Laura [email protected]

The Rio Vista football team isn’t letting last year’s one-win season hinder this year’s expectations .

After an 0-6 district fin-ish and a 1-9 overall record in 2011, Coach John Odell is confident his team can bounce back in a new district .

This year’s Division II 6-2A district consists of Rio Vista, Blooming Grove, Dal-las Life, Millsap, Corsicana Mildred, Rice, Scurry-Rosser and Tolar .

“In our district as a whole, we’re fairly evenly matched,” Odell said . “One of the big-gest things we talked about in our district meeting is the tie-breaker . We have three teams we get in, and we all have the ability to beat each other .”

Corsicana Mildred made it to the Division II state semifi-nals last season . The new dis-trict has a few familiar faces for Rio Vista . Millsap and To-lar were in District 4-2A with the Eagles .

Last year was Odell’s first year commanding the Eagles, who have six returning start-ers on offense and seven on defense . Prior to his arrival, the team had four coaches in four years .

Odell said he’s hoping his team’s record looks a lot dif-ferent this year .

“The first year is always the struggle,” he said . “It’s the year where you’re get-ting them to understand what your system is and how we do things, how hard we work . We have a good offseason under our belt now . Our ex-pectations are a lot higher . They’re a lot higher for me, they’re a lot higher for the kids . They know the work-load we have to put in to be

successful now .”Having the same coach

for longer than a year makes a world of difference, Odell said . The team kept the same fundamentals and philosophy on how to play and what the attitude of the team is instead of dealing with a learning pro-cess on a daily basis . Having some consistency helps the team know what to expect .

It also gave the Eagles a more productive offseason, where the team emphasized strength .

“We’ve put in a few wrin-kles that we need to get into . Some pre-district games will iron those wrinkles out,” Odell said .

The team is lacking in the depth department, which could be a problem if any key

players get injured throughout the season .

“We don’t have a lot of kids playing in different posi-tions,” Odell said . “We have to have a little luck and not be injury-prone this year .”

But Odell has a roster of determined players, which is a key asset and strength this season .

“We have kids that want to win . They’re hungry,” Odell said . “They haven’t had a lot of success in the past, but they’ve put the work in to hopefully get to a point where they can be successful .”

The Eagles are developing leaders in the 11 senior var-sity players on this season’s roster . Odell said he expects them to take on more of a leadership role after they fin-

ish their scrimmages .Some of those players

Odell expects to be contribu-tors includes defensive back Jacob Stanley, lineman Zach Sanders, quarterback Nick Russell and tight end and de-fensive end Chase Hailey .

“We have a good group of seniors who are very hard workers . Once we get through the dog days of two-a-days and get our legs back under-neath us, they’ll become more of a vocal group . As long as we get to that and have a little success while focusing on what we need to do, our lead-ers will develop .”

Rio Vista starts its regular season schedule off at home against Itasca on Aug . 31 be-fore kicking off district play against Millsap on Sept . 28 .

Rio Vista Eagles ready for redemption year

Laura Zamora/CTRThe Rio Vista Eagles enter their second consecutive season under the same coach for the first time in four years.


17-RIO VISTA

By Laura [email protected]

Before John Odell took the head coaching job at Rio Vista in 2011, the Eagles went through three coaching changes in three years .

Last year’s one-win season showed the Eagles weren’t just lacking vic-tories, but lacking consistency after struggling to make progress through the coaching staff shuffle . Before Odell’s inaugural season, the team went 3-7 under head coach Seth Hobbs, whose contract was not renewed in early 2011 . But Odell didn’t go anywhere after his first season with the Eagles, giving the team a chance to make a big impres-sion in the new and improved Division II District 6-2A .

Rio Vista had five all-district selec-tions last year, including linebacker Jared Wilson and defensive back Jacob Stanley, who are both seniors this year .

Adjusting to a new coach every year was especially challenging for Wilson, who is entering his fourth year on var-sity .

“It was incredibly frustrating,” Wil-son said . “This will be the first time I get to run the same playbook . I haven’t been able to run the same one year to year . We’ve been going through grow-ing pains, but we’re finally starting some tradition and starting to get a foundation built .”

Odell came in as Wilson’s third coach in three years at the beginning of last season .

“I expected [last season] to be re-ally shaky as far as wins and losses, but Coach Odell came in and showed leadership,” Wilson said . “He gave us a little bit of leeway, but now he’s start-

ing to put his foot down and expect a lot more from us .”

His arrival as the Eagles’ new coach brought a new philosophy and work ethic to the team . He heightened the level of intensity, Wilson said .

“We’re going at it longer and hard-er,” he said . “Hopefully that can turn this team around .”

Stanley, starting his third year on varsity, said the team’s whole offense changed when Odell arrived, includ-ing switching his position from outside linebacker to cornerback .

The team was able to take what they learned from last year’s inaugu-ral season with Odell and work on it in the spring before starting practice this August, where Stanley said the team focused on strength and lifted plenty of weights . Wilson agreed with Odell when analyzing the amount of progress they’ve been able to accomplish having the same coach for more than a year for once .

“Practices are getting done fast-er, more efficiently, and we feel like we can actually get a foothold . Now we’re starting to make gains on other teams . They’re experienced, but for as far back as we were, we’re starting to make larger gains . We may not be there, but we’re getting there quick,” Wilson said .

Now that the team is able to move forward instead of being taken back to square one for another straight season, Wilson said the expectations have been raised both within the team and new district, while he also expects his team-mates to be more motivated .

“I feel like we came together as a team more,” Stanley added .

The team has a unanimous goal in mind for this season: to reach the play-offs .

“We can win through hard work,” Wilson said . “It’s a game of ‘who wants it more’ and we’re going to show we want it more .”

Senior all-district leaders look forward to consistency

Laura Zamora/CTRRio Vista looks to rebound from a one-win season in Coach John Odell’s first year as the Eagles’ coach last year.


18

a great team . Our kids won’t back down from anyone .”

While many people ex-pect Stephenville to roll through its 3A schedule, Dixon said they’re not going to give anyone anything, and that he expects Glen Rose to compete at a high level .

“Glen Rose will battle us

hard, too,” he said . “They’re not going to lay down to Stephenville or us . They think they should be district champs, too . Their kids play hard and are well-coached . It’ll be a battle, too . It ought to be a good district . I don’t think anybody’s going to say, ‘Let’s let Stephenville be champions and lets play for second and third .’ I don’t see that happening .”

Dixon said he’s interested in seeing how his team per-forms this year with so many

high expectations on their shoulders after the success the program has experienced recently .

“I sure do like playing in December,” he said . “When you get to December, any-thing can happen . We’re coaching to get back there . Our expectations are high .”

Alvarado opens the sea-son at 7:30 p .m . Friday at home against Bridgeport . The Indians’ first District 7-3A game is Oct . 12 at Hill-sboro .

them have had instant suc-cess and some of them have struggled for years . Hebron High School [was] 0-10 its first year and then won a state title six years later . We certainly have high expecta-tions . We’re not expecting to go 0-10 . But we know who we are, we’re the new kids on the block, and we’ll have to fight for everything we get . Anyone on our schedule could beat us . It’s up to us to go out there and earn our success .”

The Spartans will run a multiple-based offense . Geller said they may line up with as many as two running backs or go with an empty backfield depending on per-sonnel and what the defense shows . Centennial ran the ball about 60 percent of the time last year, but Geller

said he’d rather it be an even 50-50 pass-run ratio .

Defensively, the Spar-tans’ motto is “swarm and punish,” and that’s how Geller said he expects his defense to play .

Geller spoke with his team a week into practice and laid out his team goals . While most coaches and players are concerned with wins and losses when setting team goals, Geller’s team goals were of a different va-riety .

“Our team goals are we have to play with great dis-cipline, we have to prepare with maturity, and we want to be able to stay even-keel,” Geller said . “Meaning if you lose a game, you don’t fall apart and if you win a game, you don’t get too high . An-other one of our team goals is, ‘team above self .’ We can’t worry about our own individual needs and stats and numbers . If we take care of those things, then the season goals of making

the playoffs will take care of itself .”

And making the playoffs is something that Geller and the Spartans are striving for after not being able to have the opportunity to qualify for the postseason the previ-ous two years .

“No . 1, I want to be in the playoffs,” he said . “Since we opened the school, I told the kids that in year three, we really have to hit the ground running . One of our goals is to make the playoffs . One of our goals is to win the district championship . And then one of our goals is to win game 11 . You want to reach those goals and do the best you can . If we hit on all three of them, I’ll be very, very happy . But we’re just trying to be the best we can be .”

Centennial opens its season at 7:30 p .m . Friday against Ennis at BISD Sta-dium . The Spartans’ District 8-4A opener is Sept . 28 at Crowley .

mouth . He’s a great leader by example, and he talks to the guys in his own way .”

As far as what Geller expects his star tight end, Amos, to bring to the table, he said that even before kick-off, he expects Amos to be an impact player .

“I feel like Curtis is going to be a force,” Geller said . “A lot of people will just look at him and say, ‘We got to do something about this guy be-cause he can hurt us bad .’

“Curtis has great, great ability . He runs routes well . He’s really turned it on as far as his blocking . He’s got good speed, he’s tall, he’s got great hands and he’s a great

blocker . He’ll be a guy that gets recruited for sure . Cur-tis is a great leader, too . He’s out there and he busts his tail every day . He holds his team-mates accountable . In a year, I’d say he’s matured more than anybody in our team, and that’s a credit to him and his family .”

Amos said he has no per-sonal goals that he’s striving for this season, other than what he can do for his team as a whole .

“I’m just going to give it my all,” Amos said . “I need to make sure I’m going 110 percent on every play and never take a play off . I’m going to make sure I can do everything possible to help us win as many games as possible .

“I love playing for Coach Geller . He brings something new every day . He brings us

excitement and something to live off of .”

Another player that Geller, and especially Hodg-es, will rely on will be junior running back DeMarcus Wil-liams, who rushed for 1,677 yards and 25 touchdowns last season as a sophomore .

“DeMarcus is as good of a young back that I’ve coached, and I’ve coached some good ones,” Geller said . “DeMarcus does some really nice things with the ball . His hands are good so we can throw him the ball out of the backfield and throw some screens to him .

“The thing that DeMarcus has gotten better at is play-ing without the football, with pass protection and fakes . He’s doing a much better job with those things than he did as a sophomore, and that will help the team .”

be stronger in another area .“The flip side of that is

we’re a bigger team,” he said . “Our O-line and D-line, and even my skill-position kids, are bigger than they were last year, so we’ll be a bigger and stronger team, but probably a little slower .”

One of the skill-position players that Brawner lost from last year’s team was his own son and quarterback, Rhett Brawner . Jay Mathis will take over quarterback duties after playing wide re-ceiver last season .

Rickey Jean and Taylor Luce will split carries at run-ning back while offensive tackle Blake Washington, who was voted the district lineman of the year in 2011, is expected to be one of the top linemen in the area .

Despite having so many new pieces to work with, Brawner said he is confident in the system he’s established at Godley to remain an elite program .

“We feel real confident that we’ve put the foundation for what we consider a good program, so our philosophy is just to plug new pieces in where the old pieces left,” he said . “And we feel like we’ve got a program that can sustain itself by doing that . Obviously we may throw the ball a little less, we may run the ball a little more, or we may run between the tackles more than we ran outside, but our scheme lends itself to a lot of flexibility . We believe we can plug in new parts and still be successful .”

While many expect Dis-trict 12-2A to come down to final week of the regular season between Godley and Grandview, Brawner said that the district has improved greatly .

“I think Grandview’s al-ways going to be formida-ble,” he said . “They’re well-coached and they work their tails off over there .

Last year in district play, Godley had a relatively easy path to the playoffs . But Brawner doesn’t expect that to be the case this year .

“I really look for more parity,” he said . “I think there’s going to be a lot more closer games this year than as opposed to years’ past . Last year, most of our district wins came by a margin of 40 points and you can say the same about Grandview . This year, I think the margin will close down and there will be a lot tighter games through-out the district schedule .”

Godley opens its season at 7:30 p .m . Friday at Ferris . The Wildcats’ home opener is Sept . 7 against Grapevine Faith, and their District 12-2A opener is at Maypearl on Sept . 28 .

IndIanscont. from pg. 4

spartanscont. from pg. 8

Hodgescont. from pg. 9

godleycont. from pg. 10

and there’s a lot of things in-side the tackle box that he’s got to be coherent of be-fore the ball is snapped . The quarterback is the toughest position to play by far, but I

believe he’s done a great job transitioning .”

Brawner said that during the teams’ scrimmages, Jay looked good, especially run-ning the ball, something he’s used to after making defend-ers miss once he got the ball in his hands last year .

“Jay probably had 90 yards rushing on six or sev-en carries [against Brown-

wood],” Brawner said . “He made a couple of mistakes in the passing game that are very correctable . But he looked good .”

Jay said that the transition is going “alright,” and that he’s looking forward to an-other successful season, beat-ing rival Grandview in week 10 and then making a run in the playoffs .

matHIscont. from pg. 11


19

love a trip to the state cham-pionship, they have to play the regular season, first, and clinch a playoff spot to get there, and that is something he is confident they will do .

“I expect to be back in the playoffs,” he said . “The ex-pectations have been raised since I’ve been here and for good reason . The work has been put in and confidence has been gained . I think, now, it’s just expected, and that’s where you want to get to . You want to be that program that’s consistently doing well, not just every other year or every few years . I expect more of the same, but we got a lot of work to do .”

While Walraven is looking forward at the chance of lead-ing Grandview to the playoffs for the eighth straight season, he’s also looking forward to experiencing his first season as the man in charge and see-ing the team he has helped mold play on the field .

“For myself personally, I’m looking forward to get-ting the experience of a head coach and seeing all the work we’ve put in the offseason into play and transition that to the football field,” he said . “… Being the best team we can be each week, not worry-ing about anyone else but us . We’ve got to be better each week, progressively .”

The Zebras’ offensive at-tack will come out of the spread with multiple forma-tions . Walraven said there’s a lot of options on every play for the quarterback to sort though .

“Most of my learning came indirectly from [Art] Briles at Baylor when my brother played college for him at Houston,” Walraven said . “I picked up a bunch of stuff when he was there, and I’ve kind of added my own things .

“As far as potential on the field, our running back, Jor-dan Martinez, has all the po-tential in the world . He’s just going to have to gain more experience . As far as receiver and safety, I expect big things from Colby Lee . Up front,

we’ve got Dusty Holt, our center, and pretty much the whole line is going to have to gain experience .”

Grandview’s margin of victory last season was close to 40 points per game in district play, but Walraven doesn’t expect that to be the case this year .

“I think it’s going to be the most competitive district we’ve had since I’ve been here,” he said . “At times, I think we’ve had the percep-tion of having a weak district by some . But, this year, . . . across the board, you’ve got Whitney, Palmer, Godley, Clifton . We’ve been stressing that every game will be tough every week, every second of the game will be crucial . It’s going to come down to the fourth quarter, and we know that, and that’s what we work for in practice is making sure we can win that thing at the end of the fourth .”

Grandview opens its sea-son at 7:30 p .m . Friday at Paradise . The Zebras’ home opener is Sept . 14 when they host Eastland . Grandview’s District 12-2A opener is Oct . 5 against Maypearl .

Zebrascont. from pg. 12

attention and telling them what to do here and there,”

Armstrong said . “Eventually, it’ll all fall into place .”

When a team’s two best players are also the team’s two leaders, the work ethic and accountability becomes contagious, and that is some-thing Walraven said both

Armstrong and Breton bring to the team .

“I expect them to both do very well,” Walraven said . “I think with them being the leaders, it’ll only help others around them to do better and work harder .”

bretoncont. from pg. 13

JOHNSON COUNTY FOOTBALLDistrict 8-4A

Burleson ElksHead coach: Gary McElroy2011 record: 6-5

Centennial SpartansHead coach: Kyle Geller2011 record: 6-3-1

Cleburne Yellow JacketsHead coach: Jeff Merket2011 record: 4-6

Joshua OwlsHead coach: Jerry Bird2011 record: 0-10

District 7-3AAlvarado IndiansHead coach: Jeff Dixon2011 record: 14-1

Rio Vista EaglesHead coach: John Odell2011 record: 1-9

District 6-2A

District 12-2AGodley WildcatsHead coach: Randy Brawner2011 record: 10-2

Grandview ZebrasHead coach: Casey Walraven

2011 record: 8-2


20

Alvarado 2012 scheduleDate Opponent TimeAug. 31 Bridgeport 7:30 p.m.Sept. 8 Mexia at Waxahachie 7:30 p.m.Sept. 15 at Southwest 10:30 a.m.Sept. 21 China Springs 7:30 p.m.Sept. 28 at Waco Connally 7:30 p.m.Oct. 5 at Decatur 7:30 p.m.Oct. 12 at Hillsboro* 7:30 p.m.Oct. 19 Stephenville* 7:30 p.m.Oct. 26 at Glen Rose* 7:30 p.m.Nov. 9 Venus* 7:30 p.m.*denotes District 7-3A game

Burleson 2012 scheduleDate Opponent TimeAug. 31 at Azle 7:30 p.m.Sept. 7 Haltom 7 p.m.Sept. 14 at Weatherford 7:30 p.m.Sept. 28 Everman* 7:30 p.m.Oct. 5 at Waco High* 7:30 p.m.Oct. 12 Cleburne* 7:30 p.m.Oct. 19 Crowley* 7:30 p.m.Oct. 26 at Waco Univ.* 7:30 p.m.Nov. 2 Joshua* 7:30 p.m.Nov. 9 at Centennial* 7:30 p.m.*denotes District 8-4A game

Centennial 2012 scheduleDate Opponent TimeAug. 31 Ennis 7:30 p.m.Sept. 7 at Lake Ridge 7:30 p.m.Sept. 14 TC Byron Nelson 7:30 p.m.Sept. 28 at Crowley* 7:30 p.m.Oct. 5 Waco Univ.* 7:30 p.m.Oct. 12 at Joshua* 7:30 p.m.Oct. 19 at Cleburne* 7:30 p.m.Oct. 26 Everman* 7:30 p.m.Nov. 2 at Waco High* 7:30 p.m.Nov. 9 Burleson* 7:30 p.m.*denotes District 8-4A game

Cleburne 2012 scheduleDate Opponent TimeAug. 30 at Southwest 7 p.m.Sept. 7 Weatherford 7:30 p.m.Sept. 14 Azle 7:30 p.m.Sept. 28 Waco High* 7:30 p.m.Oct. 5 at Joshua* 7:30 p.m.Oct. 12 at Burleson* 7:30 p.m.Oct. 19 Centennial* 7:30 p.m.Oct. 26 at Crowley* 7:30 p.m.Nov. 2 Everman* 7:30 p.m.Nov. 9 at Waco Univ.* 7:30 p.m.*denotes District 8-4A game

Godley 2012 scheduleDate Opponent TimeAug. 31 at Ferris 7:30 p.m.Sept. 7 Grapevine Faith 7:30 p.m.Sept. 14 at Boyd 7:30 p.m.Sept. 21 Cisco 7:30 p.m.Sept. 28 at Maypearl* 7:30 p.m.Oct. 5 Whitney* 7:30 p.m.Oct. 12 at Red Oak Life* 7:30 p.m.Oct. 19 Palmer* 7:30 p.m.Oct. 26 Clifton* 7:30 p.m.Nov. 9 Grandview* 7:30 p.m.*denotes District 12-2A game

Grandview 2012 scheduleDate Opponent TimeAug. 31 at Paradise 7:30 p.m.Sept. 6 at Lago Vista 7:30 p.m.Sept. 14 Eastland 7:30 p.m.Sept. 21 at Lorena 7:30 p.m.Oct. 5 Maypearl* 7:30 p.m.Oct. 12 at Whitney* 7:30 p.m.Oct. 19 Red Oak Life* 7:30 p.m.Oct. 26 at Palmer* 7:30 p.m.Nov. 2 Clifton* 7:30 p.m.Nov. 9 at Godley* 7:30 p.m.*denotes District 12-2A game

Joshua 2012 scheduleDate Opponent TimeAug. 31 South Hills 7:30 p.m.Sept. 7 at Azle 7:30 p.m.Sept. 13 Paschal 7 p.m.Sept. 28 at Waco Univ.* 7:30 p.m.Oct. 5 Cleburne* 7:30 p.m.Oct. 12 Centennial* 7:30 p.m.Oct. 19 at Everman* 7:30 p.m.Oct. 26 Waco High* 7:30 p.m.Nov. 2 at Burleson* 7:30 p.m.Nov. 9 Crowley* 7:30 p.m.*denotes District 8-4A game

Rio Vista 2012 scheduleDate Opponent TimeAug. 31 Itasca 7:30 p.m.Sept. 7 at Hico 7:30 p.m.Sept. 14 at Hubbard 7:30 p.m.Sept. 28 Millsap* 7:30 p.m.Oct. 5 at Mildred* 7:30 p.m.Oct. 12 Rice* 7:30 p.m.Oct. 19 at Dallas Life* 7:30 p.m.Oct. 26 Scurry-Rosser* 7:30 p.m.Nov. 2 at Blooming Grove* 7:30 p.m.Nov. 9 Tolar* 7:30 p.m.* denotes District 6-2A game

2012 Johnson County Football section

Documents

Transcript of 2012 Johnson County Football section