HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL Nostalgia is starting to hit Rudder football head coach Eric Ezar a little bit more heading into this upcoming season. He was on the sidelines when leading the Rangers to their first playoff berth in program history in 2021. As he looks at this year's roster, he sees loads of similarities with that team.
"We've got probably seven or eight kids who are three-year starters, who are coming back," Ezar said. "We had a team three years ago who went to the playoff s, first in school history, and then we had to come in and play a lot of young sophomores, and so now those kids are kind of like a plant. They've been in the ground.
They're growing [and now] they're starting to bud into beautiful flowers." A ton of returning starters combined with a year of getting better, stronger and faster give Ezar confidence. "I think we have the guys to do it, but we have to stay healthy," Ezar said.
"We don't have a ton of depth, so we can't get our big-time players hurt and so getting even a few kids hurt at a certain position, offensive line or some of the skill guys, [it] could hurt us. But if we can stay healthy, we feel like we can play with anybody." One of the big boosts during the off season was the skill group taking part in many 7-on-7 tournaments throughout the latter part of the spring.
Although Rudder didn't advance to the state tournament, they finished in the final round of each qualifying tournament, including beating 6A schools like Denton Guyer and Arlington.