WINNIE, Texas — It's been quite a run for East Chambers. The Buccaneers have gone (32-5) over the past three seasons that includes back-to-back district championships. But after graduation hit the Bucs hard, Coach Russ Sutherland says it's time for a new group to step up.
"Well I was telling the kids the other day, we're looking for some guys to step up leadership wise. Right now I feel like a lot of the leadership is coming the coaches, but we need some of our guys that are returners to step up and really take the lead there. We lost some really good seniors last year that had been two and three year starters for us so right now we're trying to figure out exactly who our team leaders are."
These young Bucs will be thrown to the fire early with an extremely tough non-district slate.
"Yeah our four non-district games are tough. We start the year with west rusk who went three rounds deep last year and they return everybody. So that's going to be a tough one. And the next three games we're playing up in classification with HJ (Hardin-Jefferson), HF (Hamshire-Fannett) and Lumberton. So there's no easy ones in non-district. I'm just hoping that we can stay healthy and continue to improve heading into district play."
Despite losing most of their starters including willie ray smith winner Ernest Ceasar, Dave Campbell's Texas Football picked East Chambers to win their third-straight district title.
"Well the first thing it tells me is no one read our questionnaire because I'm not sure we can get picked first with as few of starters as we have returning. I guess it's just one of those things, reputation. We've been fortunate to have some good teams in the past. That's the only thing I can figure that we're picked first. We're going into this season saying we want to be a playoff team at the end of the season. That's the way we're approaching this season."
East Chambers opens the year Thursday August 26 in Jasper where they'll face West Rusk.
EAST CHAMBERS BUCCANEERS
Last Year: (10-1, 6-0) - District Champions
Playoffs: Bi-District (Trinity, W 49-14); Area (Yoakum, L 37-35)
Players to Watch: QB/DB Jacoby Perrault, WR/DB KK Morris, RB/LB Cooper McKay, TE/DL Slade Parnell, RB/LB Damion Moreno, WR/DB Kendal Moore, WR/DB Darius Green, RB/DB Hayden Reeves, OL/DL Derek Gaines, WR/LB Dylan Winzer, WR/DB Payton Anderson, OL/DL Hector Martinez, OL/DL Juan Palacios, WR/DB Wyatt Kash, TE/LB Josh Carter, OL/DL Jordan Bradley
2021 SCHEDULE
Aug. 26 | vs West Rusk (at Jasper) | 7:00 pm
Sept. 3 | at Hardin-Jefferson | 7:30 pm
Sept. 10 | at Hamshire-Fannett | 7:30 pm
Sept. 17 | vs Lumberton | 7:30 pm
Sept. 24 | vs Hardin* | 7:30 pm
Oct. 8 | at Anahuac* | 7:30 pm
Oct. 15 | vs Buna* | 7:30 pm
Oct. 22 | at Kirbyville* | 7:30 pm
Oct. 29 | vs Woodville* | 7:30 pm
Nov. 4 | at Tarkington* | 7:30 pm
(*) District