EVADALE, Texas — It's always important for a team to buy in when a new coach is hired. That's exactly what happened when Jay Buckner took over at Evadale.
"Anytime you come in new you never know what to expect and these kids have a great tradition around here. They really expect to be successful. We jumped in head first in a very short period of time and they were nothing but responsive. And hopefully they felt the benefits pay off as the year went on. And I feel like we've done nothing over the offseason but continue to grow from that. So we're pretty excited."
The Rebels will face new district opponents this season including Lovelady and Colmesneil along with their usual rivals.
"We tried to schedule some bigger schools earlier in the season. Tried to get ourselves ready for the competition we're going to face in the district this year and some of the guys coming back. Hull-Daisetta and Deweyville some of those guys, Sabine Pass. We expect all those teams to have a pretty good group. So we want to be as prepared as we can. There's going to be some new competition. It's going to be fun to have some different opponents. So we're looking forward to it."
So the question is, how his is the bar in year two under Buckner?
"High as they want to go. We talked about it the other day. Our goal is to be the best team in the State of Texas. Whatever that means for us, we just want to be the best team in the State of Texas. We want to come together no matter what happens We want to be cohesive throughout and continue to grow from what we've done in the past. And I think that's what they want too."
EVADALE REBELS
2021 Record: 9-3, 5-0
Playoffs: Bi-District (Cushing, W 19-13); Area (Bremond, L 55-19)
State Championships: None
State Championship Appearances: None
Playoff Appearances: 23 (16 straight)
2022 FOOTBALL SCHEDULE
Aug. 26 - vs Tarkington
Sept. 2 - at Hardin
Sept. 9 - vs Kountze
Sept. 16 - at Anderson-Shiro
Sept. 23 - vs Northside
*Oct. 7 - vs Deweyville
*Oct. 14 - at Sabine Pass
*Oct. 21 - vs Colmesneil
*Oct. 28 - at Lovelady
*Nov. 4 - vs Hull-Daisetta