Coming off a season with the departure of many critical senior players, this year’s football team has a long road ahead of them. Coming up against big schools such as Westlake, Lake Travis, and Bowie, wins week in and week out will be critical for a winning season.

“We’ve got some good wide receivers, Colby Kalbacher for one, and of course Charles Wright at quarterback,” junior Carlos Tiemann said.

However, having some dangerous offensive weapons does the team no good if they don’t have any protection for the backfield.

“I think that some key players this year are definitely on our offensive line, we’ve got junior Harrison Donovan, and senior Jackson Ritz. He’s pretty big at center,” Tiemann said. 

The team opens their regular season against Pflugerville Connally and won 51-49. However, they played their first game in a scrimmage against Georgetown. Tiemann called it a key game for their season. 

“It got our momentum going, and it showed us what we could do,” Tiemann said.

As with any other sport, it is going to require teamwork and plenty of working together as a unit. These ‘keys’ are the things that change a good season into a great season. 

“A good season is taking it one game at a time, keeping with the grind, improving at every practice and every game, fixing our mistakes, and continuing to work hard,” said Varsity running backs’ Coach Kyle Bayer.

“Like our coaches always say, we can’t get too excited, we have to stay at a nice even level, we have to stay consistent, and keep going,” said senior Isaiah Chukwuyere.

Playing in a division with the likes of Westlake and Lake Travis comes at a cost. Making the playoffs is a challenge. 

Junior quarterback Charles Wright pointed out two big destinations along this quest. “Definitely Anderson and Del Valle,” he said as winning these two games could be crucial in making the playoffs. 

In agreement with Wright, Coach Bayer said, “making playoffs might come down to beating teams like Hays and Bowie.” 

At the end of the day playing the sport is always about getting better, and getting prepared for the next week. But sometimes when the team is down in the gutters over one play, it’s all about getting back into it. 

“I think we just need to get focused back up, stop thinking about that play and take it one step at a time,” Tiemann said.

Whether the player has been the team for several years, or this is his first season with the team, mistakes are inevitable.

“We can’t mess up, we have to learn that when we all mess up then we are alright, we can’t get too down on ourselves,” said Chuwuyere despite this being his first season with the team.

Two of the biggest games of the year come back to back in weeks four and five at home against Westlake, and then away at Lake Travis. Week nine the Maroons travel to play Bowie followed by the last game of the regular season at home against Akins.

“I think every game is going to count, every game is a big game, everyone is gonna get hyped,” Chukwuyere said.