Hugoton Looks for Junior Jump

Hugoton seventh year head coach Clint Merritt says he’s excited to see his sophomores become juniors this season. After going 4-5 and losing two games by a TD or less while starting six sophomores, Merritt says his team simply needs to make more plays. That typically happens more with upper classmen and the Eagles have a junior class 17 strong. Merritt hopes that class will offset a weak senior class which has just four players and only two returning players. Those two players are key for the Eagles. Senior 6’2" 290 pound Alfredo Licon leads the line while 6’2" 195 pound senior Garett Walker is going through a growth spurt and could burst onto the scene. The Eagles have 49 players out for football.

The Eagles have a new quarterback and strong armed junior Yates Sutton takes the reigns of a ground oriented HHS attack. Other key Eagles are junior fullback and linebacker Cordell Barnes, junior running back and safety Ross Davis, and twin brother tight end and defensive end Reid Davis.

The Eagles will have a new look on defense this year as long time defensive coordinator Jan Kilbourne decided to slide into a lesser role of coaching running backs and defensive backs. Todd Fulton comes from Norton to coach the defense shifting Hugoton from a 3-5 to a 4-3 defense.

After going 10-1 in 2009, the Eagles have been competitive in two rebuilding years going to the playoffs at 4-6 in 2010 and 4-5 last year.

Schedule

August 31- Goodland

September 7- at Holcomb

September 14- Guymon

September 21- at Colby

September 28- Scott City

October 5- at Southwestern Heights (102.7)

October 12- Pratt

October 19- Larned

October 25- at Ulysses