Cardinals seeking more than just a district title
MAUD, Texas—Maud aims ahead and looks to take that next step in taking the program to the pinnacle of Class 2A football.
“Every day in practice we push them as hard as we can, and they work hard,” third-year Cardinals head coach Allen Cross said. “Every kid in our program ran track last year, and we still had a very successful baseball program, even though we did the track workout before. We had great attendance in summer workouts. What we’re trying to get to is if we’re playing two inside linebackers we’re getting three, the same at outside linebacker; we’re trying to get one rotator at every position, which involves a lot of kids.”
Last fall, Maud went 8-5, won the district championship, and fell to eventual state champion Bremond in the regional semifinals.
“You want to repeat as district champs; that’s going to be the first goal just because every year you want to build on last year’s success, to have a successful program,” Cross said. “So we start with repeating a district championship, and our goal, ultimately, is to get to the regional finals. We’re in a very tough region with Tenaha and Bremond, and get to the regional finals you’re going to have to beat one of those teams in the third round.”
Over the last five years, the winner of the Tenaha/ Bremond game has went on to win the state championship.
“It’s lofty to go through that gauntlet, but you’ve got to put your goals there to beat one of those teams,” Cross said. “We had a slow start last year; I want to start well and keep that consistency and build upon that each week. We want to keep it going when we do
Maud has plenty of talent returning to repeat as District 9-2A, Division II champions.
The Cardinals have 22 of 29 lettermen back from a regional semifinalist team.
Maud his favored to win the district title again, with Dallas gateway picked second. Cumby and Clarksville are the choices to clinch the other two playoff spots.
CLARKSVILLE
The Blue Tigers have 19 lettermen returning and solid numbers out for the season.
Expect for Clarksville to show much improvement from its 1-9 record a season ago, with Quay Scales playing QB for the second straight year and Malcolm Woodberry and Deonte’ davie back in the backfield.
LaTerrance Childs, Adarius Ivory and LaVante Edwards will the the senior receiving corps. as well as being twoway starters. Kyrie King and Markeath Taylor are the cogs on both lines.
MAUD
The Cardinals have another deep run into the postseason on its set of goals, reaching the regional finals after coming up one game short last season against three-time state champion Bremond.
Gage Jones is back at quarterback and safety and is among the 22 lettermen returning for Maud.
The team should have the parts coming together at the right time, as long as the young players develop under the senior leadership.
DALLAS GATEWAY
The Gators finished 1-3 last season and aim to turn around its record from a year ago: 2-9.
Gateway is picked to finish second in the district, returning just 10 lettermen and four offensive starters with three back on defense.
The new faces will have the daunting task of turning around a defense that allowed 40 points per game in 2016.
CUMBY
The Trojans return 18 lettermen from a 9-3 area finalist team.
Dylan Brown rushed for nearly 1,500 yards and 19 scores last fall for Cumby, Cameron Scott will be the new quarterback, and Braden Coble leads the defense from his linebacker position.
DETROIT
Despite finishing this in the district last fall and having 19 returning lettermen, the Eagles are picked to miss the postseason.
Tyrone Rosser is the leading rusher back after gaining almost 1,00 yards a year ago and scoring eight touchdowns.