Getting taste of playoffs, Pirates hungry for more
SIMMS, Texas—After being a playoff qualifier last season, James Bowie aims to continue that success under new-but-veteran head coach Buddy Ray.
Ray, who was defensive coordinator at New Boston, has been head coach and athletic director at DeKalb and Queen City.
“I’ve been real pleased with the kids and their attitudes have been real good,” Ray said. “The were a little bit nervous with a new coach, and apprehensive with how things would go. They’ve adapted well, they’re working hard as far as doing the things we ask, and as far as the guys the guys showing up, working hard and doing what we ask of them, I’ve got no complaints. They’ve been great in those areas.”
The Pirates went 4-6 last season, finishing second in District 9-2A, Division I. James Bowie returns 10 lettermen with seven offensive starters and six on defense back.
“This isn’t a situation that you walk into that was broken and you’ve got to fix; this was a playoff football team last year,” Ray said. “They were second in the district and had success last year. These kids have had that taste of winning, and even though they had a large number of seniors last year, we’ve got several back who got that playoff experience. That’s a big plus.”
During Ray’s storied career, the offensive have been runheavy, and he believes the system is a perfect fit for the Pirates.
“We’ve got the type of kids for the offense I want to run,” Ray said. “We want to play great defense, have a sound kicking game and be efficient on offense. We’ve got to be a ball-control team, we’ve got to play smart, protect the ball and get to the fourth quarter with a chance to win. That’s going to be our gameplay every week because we’re not that team that can strike from anywhere on the field. We’re going to have to be real disciplined, and that starts with our offensive and defensive line.”
There are three returning starters that play both sides of the line.
“The ones who have impressed me the most in camp are Kutter Walker, who will play offensive tackle and defensive end,” Ray said. “He’s practiced well early on and is getting familiar with what we’re trying to do. Ty Watts had a really good summer, worked hard all summer and has had a good (fall) camp. Lucas Stephenson is another who had shown some of what he can do early. We’re going to get some breaks here and there to be successful, those three are going to have to start on both sides of the ball, and they really anchor it.”
Walker (6-4, 255) is a junior returnee at right tackle, Watts (5-10, 265) will play left guard
and defensive tackle, and Stephenson (5-10, 270) is back at left offensive and defensive tackle.
Joining the three returning linemen on offense will be freshman Whitt Rogers (5-8, 230) at center, and Ian Stewart or Bailey Hill (5-0, 215) at right guard. Sophomore Evan Williams (5-10, 210) is expected to take over at tight end. Sophomore Branden Hanna also adds depth to the line, and Ethan Lum will back up Rogers at center.
Bailey Obenoskey (6-2, 200) has been the Pirates’ quarterback but is transitioning to tailback under Ray, with Evan Barron (6-1, 150) taking over at signal-caller.
“During district play last year, he ran the ball extremely well on the quarterback run game, out of the gun, and with us being a downhill type team, Bailey’s so strong and runs downhill very well,” Ray said. “The second reason I’ve moved him is because Evan moved back over from New Boston. And he’s smooth at quarterback.
“There’s a pretty good competition at quarterback, and I would feel comfortable with either one of those at QB.”
Dalton McBride (5-6, 140) has also been taking snaps in practice. McBride is expected to start at wingback.
“We’ve got three guys who I trust at quarterback, and any of them could take snaps,” Ray said. “We are able to rotate them and do some different stuff, if we need to.”
Dakota Grant (5-10, 175) is a returning starter and will play fullback in 2017, and Noah Woodruff (5-8, 155) and Jesse Mooneyham (5-10, 160) are backing Grant up. Duncan Hammonds (5-8, 150) is spelling Obenoskey, and freshman Ethan Fields (5-8, 145) will also contribute.
Landon Crawford, Scotty Akins, sophomore Tyler Crabtree and McBride will see time at receiver, and sophomore Wyatt Morton will be the second tight end in the 2-tight end sets.
“Coach (Willy) McDonald is still our defensive coordinator,” Ray said. “They were running a 3-4, and he really likes the split, 4-2-5. We’ve gone back to that this year. With our personnel, getting back into the split is going to make us a better defensive team with some of th things we can do on that side.
“Our first emphasis is that we can’t get into those 52-48 games; we’re not that high-powered so we’re stressing to our kids that we want to play great defense They’ve worked hard, defensively.”
The Pirates return three in the secondary and three linemen from last season.
“When we get on our level, playing teams in our class, I feel real good about the first 15 or 16 kids on defense,” Ray said. “We’ve got kids who are giving good effort, who are playing well and they’ve got some experience and ability. Wherever I’ve been I’ve always stressed the weight room, and we spend a lot of time in there before we hit the field (for practice). They know we may be a little more tired when we get out there, but the kids are getting excited.”
Watts and Stephenson will man the inside defensive line job, and Walker and Williams will play the ends.
Obenoskey moves from safety to inside linebacker, and Grant will also play an inside backer position. The outside linebacker will be Mooneyham and Akins, who is also a returning starter.
In the secondary, McBride and Crawford are practicing at the cornerbacks, and Barron has been playing free safety. Also helping on defense will be Hammonds at linebacker, Fields at safety.
The Pirates are working on perfecting their execution and learning the plays and schemes in preparation for district play.
“We told our guys when we started, ‘We want to win every game, but we’ve got an 11-week plan,’” Ray said. “(From the start of training camp), ‘We’ve got 11 weeks before we play our first district game, that counts. So we’re going to take it slow, we’re going to get everything in we want to learn, we’re going to teach, and in 11 weeks we want to be ready to roll.’ At that point, if I’m not mistaken, the strength of our team is going to be the offensive and defensive lines.
“We’ve got returning starters in there with playoff experience, and they’ve played all the games from last year and some the season before that.”