Mike Phillips

Daily Sun Sports Editor

Welcome to our Football Review 2025 Magazine , where we look back of the 2024 football season in the Golden Circle . If there ’ s one thing that jumps out about the 2024 football season it ’ s the number 5 . It ’ s kind of hard to believe we had five of the seven teams in the Golden Circle reach the playoffs . It would be difficult to find another area in Texas that covers high school football where more than 70 percent of the football teams made it to the postseason . But we had five teams make it . Some were surprises , some were not . Biggest surprise ? That had to be Rice , where brand new Coach Royse Slechta showed up with some creative and innovative ideas and motivated his kids from the moment he walked onto the Rice football field . It took more than just motivation to put new life into a program that had won just four games over the past three seasons and hadn ’ t made the playoffs since 2020 . We ’ re not going to give away any of Coach Slechta ’ s secrets or even mention his magic Blue Raid Kool-Aid he mixes up for his players . We just know Rice looked and felt different this year . It was great ( and a lot of fun ) to see Blooming Grove bounce back after just missing the playoffs in 2023 when the Lions lost their last game . They had a new coach in the Grove , and Jason Burnett , who was the Lions ’ Defensive Coordinator a couple of years ago , he was beaming , saying “ I love Blooming Grove ! I love Blooming Grove .” Burnett and is kids know that it ’ s a lot more fun to love the town and the football team when the Lions make the playoffs . Dawson had the longest streak of reaching the playoffs before anyone kicked off in 2024 . The irony that the Bulldogs came out of a four-year losing streak and put together a six-year streak of reaching the playoffs wasn ’ t lost on anyone in Dawson , where to the credit of the town , the community and the heart of Dawson , the local fans supported the Bulldogs through their 44-game losing streak . And those Dawson fans were right there with their kids when Ron Striplin showed up and took Dawson to the postseason in his final two seasons before leaving coaching for family reasons . Legendary coach Jimmy Thompson took over and led the Bulldogs to backto-back playoff berths before he retired from a long , successful career . The door was open and Dawson brought home Coach Bryan Kelley , who had a remarkable career as an assistant coach and Coordinator at big 6A programs such as Allen and Waco Midway , before coming home to Dawson , where his first team was the most successful in the Golden Circle and his second team beat the odds to get back in the playoffs in 2024 . Dawson lost more talent than any high school team in Texas , but Kelley found a way to win , leading Dawson to second-place finish in a tough district to stretch Dawson ’ s playoff streak to six . He was voted the District Coach of the Year . Mildred broke its playoff drought in 2023 when Coach Jeff Callahan brought the Eagles together and gave the team and the Mildred community a boost with a solid run to the postseason . Then a lot of the those Eagles came back and had the best season in Mildred since 2012 . Last but surely not least was Kerens and new Coach Brent Watkins , who had been a long-time Defensive Coordinator at Malakoff , where he helped lead the Tigers to the 3A DI State Title in 2023 . He left for Kerens , where the Bobcats were in a rut , making the playoffs only to be eliminated right away . On Day 1 , Watkins vowed to end the “ One-and- Done ” days at Kerens . He not only ended the quick exit frustration , but he led the Bobcats to the third round of the playoffs where they fell to state-ranked Hamilton 14-7 despite out-rushing and out-passing the Bulldogs . But Watkins and the Bobcats made their point by becoming the first Kerens football team to go three rounds in the postseason in 19 years . Yup , 19 years . Well done , well done , well done ! The guess here is that next season the Golden Circle may send six ( Corsicana may have a breakout season ) or seven seven teams ( Frost would have made the playoffs in 2024 if the Polar Bears played in a district that wasn ’ t crawling over with state powers such as Mart and Bremond and even Chilton . Enjoy the recaps from all seven teams in the Daily Sun ’ s Football Review 2025 ...

SPRING EDITION

PUBLISHER Lange Svehlak lsvehlak @ athensreview . com

EXPLORE EDITOR

Guy Chapman gchapman @ corsicanadailysun . com

SPORTS EDITOR

Mike Phillips mphillips @ corsicanadailysun . com

BUSINESS OFFICE

Ann Bland abland @ jacksonvilleprogress . com

GRAPHIC DESIGN

Haley Jenkins hjenkins @ corsicanadailysun . com

CIRCULATION / AUDIENCE DEVELOPMENT

Charlotte Whitaker circulation @ corsicanadailysun . com

ADVERTISING

Tricia Davis tdavis @ corsicanadailysun . com

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Jon Rash Dan Lunsford

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Spring 2025 | Explore Corsicana 5