FAMILIAR FACES AIM TO LEAD
BRONCHOS
INTO PLAYOFFS
BY ANDY MORPHEW
Familiarity in athletes is something Coach Gerald White will use in his favor on the Bronchos ’ journey to make the playoffs this year in Class B .
White , in his third season at Central High , said the expectations are high as they return several players who saw a lot of minutes in 2021 .
“ We do return a lot of kids , I think we have seven seniors and a lot of those guys played a lot of minutes and their expectations and our expectations are to take that next step ,” White said . “ I know record-wisem from last year to this spring we had the same record as the year before . We have kind of seen those little things translate into spring and I ’ m excited to see how that translates to games .”
Those seven seniors include Cooper Walters , Jonathan Mejia , Payton Spencer , Kolten Bethune , Sean Klein , Levi Young and Coltin Ladd , who will factor both in offense and defense for Central High .
While not having that many seniors the past two years , those seven took on leadership roles . White believes Spencer , who ran the ball a lot , will prove a key factor in 2022 .
“ Payton Spencer is a guy that we utilized in a Wildcat role – not really a true quarterback – and he took that and made a lot of plays and some tough runs and will be really useful ,” White said . “ A guy that has come over the spring is Kolten Bethune , he has been a really good tight-end and has been working his passing game a little bit and he is a big target .”
On defense , the Bronchos will rely on Klein and Mejia , who were big parts of the defense for Central High . The size of those two help White feel confident .
“ We ’ ve got some pretty good size up front with Sean Klein , Jonathan Mejia and Kolten Bethune so I think it starts up front for us ,” White said . “ If we can establish the line of scrimmage and let our linebackers in Cody Zimmerman and Aiden Armadirez run to the ball , that will be to our advantage .”
White said newcomers like Cole Griffith will play heavy on special teams . The Bronchos will also rely on Zack Ely , a sophomore .
Opening the season at home against Grandfield and then playing against Bray-Doyle and Tipton , the Donkeys will play in a district that has little change .
With non-district games ahead that are tough , White said a lot of the teams are going through coaching changes so hopefully they can start off on a good note .
“ I think it is easy to set goals as far as how many games you want to win and obviously we want to win games , but at the end of the day we are looking for improvement ,” White said . “ I think if you get too worried about , ‘ we want to win this game or that game ’ then if something goes wrong , that will mess up your whole season . We want to look at it one game at a time , one week of development at a time and let the results fall where they may .”
Kick-off will be at 7:30 p . m . Aug . 25 at home against Grandfield . During week one they will head on the road to play Bray- Doyle at 7 p . m . Sept . 2 .