Jacob Martella, Editor
August 25, 2011
Filed under Sports, Top Stories
Last year, the Jaguar football team made the playoffs for the first time in two years. After a promising opening round, however, they came up one point short against Birdville.
Now, nine months later, the Jags are hoping to use that loss to go farther into the playoffs this year.
“We’ve been there now,” wide receiver senior Donovan Ellis said. “We know how it feels. It makes us want to be there again and not lose.”
Standing in their way is a wave of inexperienced players moving up from the junior varsity squad, including at a few key positions.
“We have a quarterback from JV, a running back from JV and almost an entire offensive line from JV,” head coach Travis Pride.
One of the biggest additions to the offense is quarterback junior Ryan Cuevas. Cuevas takes the place of former quarterback Xavier Williams who graduated last year. Oddly enough, Cuevas is embracing the pressure.
“I actually do better under pressure,” Cuevas said. “When I was a freshman, I was moved up to JV and we won our final six games.”
Throughout the offseason workouts, Cuevas has built a solid chemistry not only with his receivers, but also with his offensive line.
“We’re friends both in and out of school,” Cuevas said. “If someone messes with one of them, we’re there for them. It’s a brotherhood.”
The chemistry is so good that Ellis said they see him as New York Jets quarterback Mark Sanchez.
“He has the same body build and the same attitude as Sanchez,” Ellis said.
Other players coming up from the JV squad, like Cuevas, have also found a place with returning players. Defensive back senior Kolbi Nixon said the new players have learned quick.
“They’re young and not experienced, but they’ve caught on quick,” Nixon said. “We don’t have to teach them too much. We’ve taken them under our wing and corrected the little things such as technique.”
Coach Pride also said that the new players have caught on, but is worried that the little stuff will hurt them.
“The offense and defense didn’t change from junior varsity to varsity,” Pride said. “But you can get away with more at the JV level. In varsity, a bad mishap can result in consequences. It’s more refined.”
Returning most of the front seven defensively, Coach Pride believes it will be up to the defense to hold up the team until the offense begins to gel.
“We’re big into collectively winning games and to do that we need to keep them out of the end zone,” Pride said. “If we can hold them to a field goal or nothing, we have a good chance to win.”
The defense, however, won’t be charged with just being good on the field. Coach Pride said the defense will need “to provide leadership and tone.”
“We want to establish a certain identity, ‘Jaguar football’,” Pride said. “We want to be faster, harder and tougher than them and show that diversity doesn’t sink our ship. The defense will help establish that.”
Also standing in the Jaguars’ way is the record heat wave striking the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Mansfield ISD has a heat policy that limits what the team can and can’t do because of the weather.
“[The policy] is very precise,” Pride said. “At 101 you have to this. At 102 you have to do that. For example, when it’s 103 degrees we can only where helmets, t-shirts and athletic shorts and we have to have five minute water breaks every 20 minutes.”
In addition to that, the coaches also have taught the players about nutrition and pre-hydration.
“How well you are hydrated the preceding day determines how well you practice that day,” Pride said. “If you fill yourself up with good stuff, you’ll be ready for an hour and a half of practice. We take a lot of precautions.”
The Jaguars will finally get a chance to show off all of their work Friday night when they head up to Keller to take on Fossil Ridge. Even though the Panthers aren’t a district foe, Coach Pride said that this will be an important game.
“We need to build some momentum,” Pride said. “It doesn’t matter if they’re in our district or not, we need to create a habit of winning. How we come out of the gate is important.”
And despite all of the new players and challenges presented to the team this year, Coach Pride believes this team will get back to where they were last year.
“We have the ability to play for the district championship,” Pride said. “We like our team chemistry, our players and our 2011 teams as a whole.”
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