A NEW CLASS OF
OPPONENTS
DONKEYS LOOK TO
BATTLE IN NEW BRACKET
BY ANDY MORPHEW
The grind of facing adversaries with bigger attendance rates can be a challenge but that won ’ t slow down the Bray-Doyle Donkeys , which moved to Class C and will compete in a new division of opponents .
Winning only one game last year in 2021 , the Donkeys will go from Class B to Class C with Coach Marcus Knight entering his fifth season as the coach . He will return some athletes who are highly regarded .
Knight , who tried to get the program back into a competitive mode , believes playing schools their size on a regular basis will help with that cause .
“ I think it is going to help us because we are playing schools our size . We are down to about 70 kids in high school and Class B we were playing schools that had over 100-120 kids and we didn ’ t have the kids to compete ,” Knight said . “ Going down to Class C , we are playing schools we feel we can compete with even though we have a young team .”
The Donkeys even went to camps with some of the smaller schools to get used to playing with that competition . Comepeting in a district with Tipton , Ryan and other powerhouse Class C teams will be a challenge .
Knight said the camp at Thackerville was eye opening for the team . He had high praise for his quarterback , Brody Whitney , a sophomore and pre-season favorite for VYPE Magazine .
“ We did fairly well and we thought we held our own and thought we looked good . Our quarterback will be a sophomore who went down in week three and when he went down , he was out for the rest of the season – that really hurt us ,” Knight said . “ If we can keep Brody Whitney healthy , we really feel like we can make a playoff push in Class C . Obviously Tipton is kind of the cream of the crop of our district , but we think everything after that is wide open .”
Other players on the offense Knight believes will radiate as a force include Jayden Phillips , the only senior on the squad who will either be a fullback or tailback , with junior Caleb Carson .
On the line , Caleb Noble , a sophomore will come in and play center . Devin Gill will be the other guard position to round out the line for the Donkeys .
Defensive-wise , those same players will also contribute and they will look to three different schemes during the 2022 season .
With the district play looking different , the Donkeys ’ head coach believes the opening game bringing a sense of familiarity will help and the team will make the right turn if they can stay injury free .