Fresh Cards hope to make a play this fall
Bellaire head football coach Trey Sissom felt the Cardinals took care of most items on his checklist during spring practice.
It helped that most of the players who are projected to be major contributors were on hand when Bellaire held its annual Red and White Game earlier this month.
“Unfortunately, our baseball team lost early in the playoffs and our boys track and field team didn’t qualify anyone for the regional and state meets,” Sissom said. “The positive is all our kids were there and they got a lot of snaps. That was a bonus.”
Sissom noted that Bellaire will rely on several underclassmen at key positions, but there’s plenty of talent returning from last year’s 7-4 squad, which finished second to Lamar in District 20-6A and lost to Katy Cinco Ranch 5638 in the first round of the Class 6A-Division I playoffs.
Sophomore quarterback Darion Manning was a nice surprise this spring. Manning is tabbed to take over the starting quarterback job from Tre Smith, a Stephen F. Austin University signee.
“Darion played sparingly as a freshman, but he had a great spring,” Sissom said. “He has a chance to be pretty special.”
Senior John Hubbell, who missed most of the spring after breaking a collarbone, will likely be Manning’s back-up.
“John still has a chance to play a lot, but we’ll need to get him a lot of repetitions in 7-on-7 this summer,” Sissom said.
Senior Tavion Palmer is the top candidate to replace Xzaviar Campbell, a University of Nevada-Las Vegas signee, at running back.
The next few months will be hectic for Bellaire. The Cardinals will enter 7-on-7 state qualifiers at Richmond Foster and Katy Cinco Ranch, with an eye on qualifying for state for the second year in a row. They also will participate in a summer 7-on-7 league hosted by Strake Jesuit on Wednesday nights in June.
Fall practice will get underway on Monday, Aug. 10. Bellaire’s season opener will be against Fort Bend Elkins at 7 p.m. Aug. 28, at Butler Stadium.