District game kicks off 2017 football season

Getting+ready+for+Fridays+game+against+Wakeland%2C+the+offensive+and+defensive+line+battle+during+practice.+

Roy Nitzan

Getting ready for Friday’s game against Wakeland, the offensive and defensive line battle during practice.

For the second straight year, the football season begins Friday with a District 13-5A contest against Wakeland at Memorial Stadium starting at 7 p.m.

Starting fall camp on Aug. 14, the team has been working in preparation for the season as a whole, rather focusing on a specific opponent.  

We haven’t prepared at all for necessarily Wakeland, we’ve prepared ourselves,

— head football coach Christopher Burtch

“We haven’t prepared at all for necessarily Wakeland, we’ve prepared ourselves,” head football coach Christopher Burtch said. “There are so many things that you can do as a football player and a football team that are just about you. If you get really good at your job, if you get really good at your craft in football, it really doesn’t matter what the other team does, you should be able to survive. And so specific scheme stuff, we really haven’t looked at Wakeland yet. We will start doing that this weekend and next week and try to get ready for them.”

Graduating 31 seniors, the team has a new group ready to take charge.

“We’ve got so many seniors that contribute,” Burtch said. “One of the guys that’s been a go to guy has been Jordan Jones. He’s playing both ways offensively and defensively and is doing a great job. We have high expectations for him. We have high expectations really for all of our seniors. If you’re a senior, you have probably been in the program for a few years, a lot of them have been in here for four years and so they know the expectations.”

Most high school football teams start their season with several non-district games to gauge their team, but on Friday night, the team will face a challenge by starting the 2017 season against the Wolverines.

“I expect it to be a dogfight,” senior Jordan Jones said. “It’s gonna be one of the hardest games because they are 2nd or 3rd best in district so we know that we have to bring our top game. It’s not going to be an easy game to win.”

The pressure is on after losing to Wakeland in the previous season, making this game even more crucial.

“It’s a little different because district games count more towards making it to playoffs,” senior Cade Wynn said. “I’m a little nervous because we are missing a couple players for our first couple of games but I feel like we are gonna go out there and give it our best. We’ve been practicing a lot more and watching a lot more film and getting ready for their game plan to try to beat them. It’s a little stressful but I feel like we’ve done everything we can to give us our best chance.”

I expect it to be a dogfight. It’s not going to be an easy game to win,

— senior Jordan Jones

After Friday’s game against Wakeland, the Redhawks will embark on their non-district schedule with games against Sherman, Prosper, and South Garland.

“It almost sounds like a cliche, but I’m expecting pretty much the same things we expect every year,” Burtch said. “We expect our players to do three things: We expect them to sacrifice for others, we expect them to serve the greater good, and we expect them to lead others to do the same. And we think that that bleeds over directly to football. The more successful you are at sacrificing, serving, and leading, the more successful you are on football field.”