8 THE RIVER VALLEY REPORT FOOTBALL PREVIEW | 8.11.2024
Fresh faces abound for Mavericks
Southside with many holes to fill on offense, defense
LELAND BARCLAY
SPECIAL TO RIVER VALLEY DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE
FORT SMITH— The 2024 football season looks to be an interesting one for the Fort Smith Southside Mavericks.
“ We have new kids playing new opponents,” Southside Coach Kim Dameron said.“ Going into the game, we’ re just going to try to be the best we can be and not really worry about the rest of it. I feel like if we do that and the kids continue to work like they have, we’ ll keep our team atmosphere and family atmosphere will keep those guys close together.
“ You show up at the games and see what happens. That’ s what I’ m going to do.”
It begins up front for the Mavericks, who join the 6A-West Conference.
After owning the most dominant offensive line in the state last year, bolstered by four seniors, the Mavericks have several questions to answer.
Junior Nick Arnold is the lone returning starter on offense, but he may even switch positions.
“ That’ s another question,” said Dameron, who begins his fourth season at Southside.“ He can play all five positions. So, whatever the best combination is going to be. We’ ll experiment with different combinations.”
If Arnold does switch positions, it means every position on offense will manned by somebody new, including the offensive line that paved the way for an offense that scored 502 points last year and chewed up 5,398 offensive yards.
“ We basically played five guys all year. It worked out great for us,” Dameron said.
Fort Smith Southside takes the field on Friday, September 22nd, 2023 at Jim Rowland Stadium in Fort Smith. Southside took on Rogers High School in a closely contested game.( River Valley Democrat-Gazette / Caleb Grieger)
“ The younger kids, they just played on Monday nights. We had a senior class last year that played, and we stayed healthy enough that we didn’ t have to play them.”
Junior Josh Chung played some near the end of the season and in the playoffs, while junior Hayden Ecklehoff has taken snaps at center during the summer.
“ We tried to move those guys around,” Dameron said.“ We have a lot of questions to answer once we get pads on and once we start making some final decisions. That’ s the biggest question, is who and what’ s the best combination and at what positions. I doubt if we’ re going to play five guys all year again. We’ ll be moving guys around quite a bit and trying to get more guys more snaps in that rotation, especially the first three games.”
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