20 THE RIVER VALLEY REPORT FOOTBALL PREVIEW | 8.11.2024

KEVIN TAYLOR

SPECIAL TO RIVER VALLEY DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE

The field has been cut and prepped. Soon, the lines will glisten a bright white and the smell of popcorn will permeate through the thick, summer haze that signals the start of football season.

“ Defending champs” isn’ t anything new for the Booneville Bearcats. Not this century, anyway.

Four championships since 2000, coupled with that magical run in 1986 give the Bearcats five state titles in nearly 40 years.

So how do the Bearcats keep turning out good football players? It’ s not that complicated.

“ We’ re always undersized we don’ t have a lot of big kids,” shrugs Booneville Coach Doc Crowley.“ But they don’ t feel that way. Plus, our coaches do an excellent job in junior high making them( players) tough and taking on the blue-collar mentality. Most of them know they’ re not going to the next level, so they come out and play for the guys before them and the community.” Junior Rhett Nietert agrees.“ When I was younger, I looked at those guys( former high school players) as role models,” he said.“ I didn’ t picture myself out there playing, because they seemed like they were on a higher pedestal than I was at the time.

“ Playing now, you realize how important it is to those kids.”

The Bearcats carry a 12-game winning

2023 RECORD 13-2, 7-0 3A-1 Conference COACH Doc Crowley( 5th year, 48-10)

BOONEVILLE BEARCATS

RETURNING STARTERS 6 offense, 8 defense streak into their 2024 opener against perennial eastern Oklahoma power Poteau.

For Crowley, the first objective is to win the conference championship, such as last fall when after a 1-2 start against Ozark, Camden Fairview and Harding Academy, they didn’ t lose again.

“ The first thing is always to win the

KEY PLAYERS QB / S Jace Washburn( Sr., 6-3, 185), RB / DE Conner Lentz( Jr., 5-9, 155), FB Hunter Warren( Sr. 5-9, 155), OL / DL Joshua Redmond( 5-8. 205), OL / DL Sam Hicks( Jr., 6-2, 303), WR Dakota Mattson( Sr., 5-11, 150), CB Conner Droemer( Jr., 5-9, 150), CB Seth Wilson( Jr., 5-10, 165), FB / DL Damari Poole( Sr., 5-10, 190)

*— Denotes 3A-1 Conference game. All kickoffs at 7 p. m. unless noted. conference, and that’ s not an easy task in our league,” Crowley said.“ We return eight defensive starters, which is huge for us. We’ ve never won back-to-back( state) titles, either, so they’ ve( players) got a chance to do something no other team has ever done.

“ We want to get back down there and do it again.”

Among the holdovers is junior quarterback Jace Washburn( 6-foot-3, 185 pounds), a two-way star who also contributes to defense.

“ Obviously, with Jace, we’ re expecting big things out of him,” Crowley said.“ Also, Rhett Nietert is a two-way player who will play all over the field. Conner Lentz( 5-9, 155-pound junior) is another returning starter( running back and inside defensive end) who plays all over the field. We only have eight seniors, so a lot of these guys are juniors.”

“ This year I’ m playing halfback as well, along with safety,” Nietert said.“ This team, we have a lot of people returning from last year, but the people we lost were big names( Dax Goff and Rylen Ray), so our junior class is going to have to step up big this year.

A lot of us played a lot last year, but we’ ll have a lot of new faces on the offensive line.”