By Chris Parker
Diamond football will have a new look this season on offense with the Wildcats switching to the split-back veer. It is an offense second-year head coach Masen Cook knows well from his time at Webb City.
“This is something I think puts our kids in the best position,” Cook said. “The kids have bought into it and doing a great job with it.”
The Wildcats will look to ride the veer to an improvement on last season’s three wins.
Seven starters return on offense.
Giancarlo Martinez moves over from wide receiver to quarterback this season.
“He (Martinez) has done a great job reading things,” Cook said. “He is really good with the ball and makes great decisions. He wants the ball in his hands. He wants to make the decisions. He enjoys that aspect of it.”
Maddox Youngblood and Kale Adams will be in the backfield with Martinez taking handoffs.
“They (Youngblood and Adams) were more of an athlete position (last year),” Cook said. “We asked them to do a lot of different things. The fact that they were able to bounce around to different positions and be able to learn things I think speaks to their football IQ and how good of football players they can be.”
Denver Beck and Brailen Hicks will also see time running the ball.
Brayden Nelson, Charles Jackson and Hunter Bard return on the offensive line.
“Those three were key pieces of our offensive line and defensive line last year,” Cook said. “They take a lot of ownership in it. They understand what it is we want them to do. They are by far the biggest part of that. You can’t win football games running the football if you can’t run the ball.”
Easton Badley moves from the offensive line to tight end this season.
“(Badley) is a little more athletic than some of our big guys, but he still brings a natural tenacity to it,” Cook said. “He has been one of our key leaders. Any time I think back to Webb City football we always had a really good tight end that was both football IQ smart and played with a crazy amount of energy. Eastan brings that to our football team. He is very technical, does the things we ask him to do, and runs good routes when we do throw the football around. He has been probably our biggest leader and taken ownership of that group of front.”
Defensively, five starters return with Nelson, Jackson and Bard setting the tone on the defensive line like they do the offensive line.
“Those three up front really take charge of the defensive line,” Cook said. “They’ve done a great job of working their hands and working all the techniques we have been giving them. They understand they are the frontline defense. This is what their job is, and they are going to find a way to get it done.”
Badley along with Manny Rangel, Adams, Youngblood, Curry Farmer and Korbin Bunn will be at linebacker.
Back will see time at outside linebacker and safety. Martinez and Rafael Rangel will be in the secondary.
“Our goal is to be playing our best football at the end of the season,” Cook said. “When we hit Week 10, we want to be playing our best football. That is our goal. It is not necessarily wins or losses. It is just going out and doing our job and being able to look back at our season and say ‘did we get better every single day that we went out there’. If we did, then we are building a program and doing things the right way.”
Diamond opens the regular season on Aug. 39 at Ash Grove.
