Groups like last year’s Lockwood Tigers don’t come along very often, especially for a school with 127 students. While that talented senior class has moved on, veteran head coach Clay Lasater believes he’s got another talented bunch who can make some noise this fall.
“It’s a different feel,” said Lasater. “This year you feel like you’ve got to take a couple steps backwards and make sure guys are learning basic things because they’re not veteran guys that have playing experience on Friday night.”
Head Coach: Clay Lasater (13th year)
2015 Record: 10-1 (lost to Marionville in district semifinals)
Players to Watch: Kyle Bouldin (Sr RB/S), Ethan Bates (Sr RB/LB), Logan Sparkman (Jr WR)
The Tigers return just four total starters from last year’s 10-1 squad, but the ones they return are huge impact players.
Kyle Bouldin and Ethan Bates make up a backfield duo that’s unmatched in the area among Class 1 schools.
“I hate to have those guys as seniors,” said Lasater. “It was nice to say they were just a freshman or a sophomore or a junior, but they’ve been playing a long time and hopefully it will be a good year for them.”
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Bouldin earned All-State accolades last season, racking up 970 rushing yards and 350 receiving yards, despite missing much of the campaign with a knee injury.
“Kyle is recovered from the injury. He had a good offseason, lifting, workout, he’s in good shape, so I think he’s ready to go.”
If Bouldin is the “lightning”, Ethan Bates provides the thunder to the Tigers offense. The 260 pound senior provides a ton of punch, but has surprising speed to go with it.
“He can make it pretty tough on somebody when he moves the way he does at 260 pounds. I had some coaches in the league ask if we were moving him to guard or tackle, and he’d probably be a good guard or tackle, but he moves good enough we’re going to put the ball in his hands.”
The big difference for Lockwood will be the group in front of Bouldin and Bates.
Senior Will Beerly moves over from the receiver position to take over the quarterback duties vacated by All-SRVC, 3-year starter, Ben Schnelle. Lasater says the transition for Beerly is smooth because of his perspective of the position from playing receiver in the past.
Up front, the Tigers will have to replace four starting linemen. Skyler Neill is the lone returning starter and will man the right guard position. Dalton Menke takes over at center with Evan Bates (Ethan’s brother) at right tackle. Junior Brady Oeltjen moves from tight end to left guard and junior Zach Brewer will start at left tackle. Raiden Ott is another senior that adds depth.
Lasater says the defensive line is probably the biggest question mark, but believes he has the young men ready to step up.
“I hope they realize that with the loss of those guys (from last year) it’s going to take a full group effort because we were able to lean on those offensive linemen and Ben’s (Schnelle) leadership last year. With those guys not there these guys are going to have to band together as a group and do some things those other guys were doing for the last two or three years.”
Despite all the new faces, the defending SRVC champs are still considered the favorite. Lockwood will get its first chance to prove it against Liberal Fri. Aug. 19.
