By Brock Sisney (For OzarksSportsZone.com)
For the 2021 season, the Greenfield Wildcats are making the return to playing 8-man football after spending the last couple seasons at the 11-man level.
The Wildcats, who finished second in their district playing 8-man in 2016 and 2017, have a new head coach in one of their own, Jordan Bryant.
Bryant announced he accepted the Greenfield job on Apr. 23, “11 years ago when I graduated all I wanted to do was play ball and eventually coach. My goal was to come back and coach at Greenfield one day. I couldn’t be more happy to be doing that now! I am very very proud to announce that I have accepted the head football coaching position at Greenfield!! I am so ready to get started and can’t thank everyone enough for always being there for me! I’ve always bled blue since Day 1 and always will! Gooo Blueee!!!!!”
Greenfield was one of the Missouri schools who had a rough time of it last season in part because of the COVID-19 virus. The Wildcats finished 0-6 overall and forfeited their district playoff opener against Marionville.
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The Wildcats return junior offensive guard and defensive end Jimmy O’Neal, sophomore running back and linebacker Alex Pickett, sophomore guard and defensive end Xander Vaughn, senior center and defensive end Rylan DeJager, junior guard and defensive end Rexton DeJager, junior guard and defensive end Aiden Bowles, and senior wide receiver and center Max Young.
Bryant named a probable starting lineup — offensively, Austin Pickett at quarterback, Alex Pickett and Brad Reid running back, Tyler Howard, Nik Gossett and Kolten Garver receiver, O’Neal guard, Hunter Minks center, and Vaughn guard and defensively, Tyler Howard at safety, Gossett and Reid corner, Cameron Shouse and Garver linebacker, and Vaughn and O’Neal defensive end.
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“We are going to be very young so I know we will have growing pains,” Bryant said, “but I am very excited to see these young players develop. Our strength is going to be our speed and we have plenty of depth in the backfield as well. Be competitive, learn and get better every day, win. Learning to play as a team, focusing on our goal, trusting in process.”
Bryant, hired by his alma mater as football assistant coach in 2019, said that he could not find stats from last season.
The Wildcats open their 2021 season Aug. 27 at home against Rich Hill and then have Osceola (Sept. 3), Liberal (Sept. 17) and Lockwood (Sept. 24) on the road, Jasper (Oct. 1) and Drexel (Oct. 8) at home, and close out the season on the road against Pleasant Hope (Oct. 15) and Appleton City (Oct. 22).
Greenfield travels to Liberal the week before the official start of the season for a jamboree with the host Bulldogs, Jasper, and Lockwood, all teams on the regular season slate.
