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E-mail This StoryBobcat faithful got their first look at the 2008 football team Saturday in a controlled scrimmage against Lovejoy, and though many of the faces and names have changed, the expectations remain as lofty as ever.
Celina returns only 12 lettermen from last year’s 16-0 state championship team, a number head coach Butch Ford has said is the lowest he can remember in recent years. But don’t be fooled by that figure. Many coaches would very easily swap their quantity of average talent for Celina’s quality returners.
Seniors Charley Waldrep, Troy McCartney and Nathan Bidelman, along with junior Caleb Lavey are all on the all-state watch list. Dave Campbell knocked the Bobcats down to No. 5 on his preseason state rankings for Class 3A largely because of what the team lost to graduation. He failed to take into account that Celina reloads as well as any team in Texas.
Following the seventh state title in 2005, the squad lost some two dozen players, including quarterback Nathan Tune and running back Chris Torbert, a pair of honorable mention all-state selections, and second-team all-state linemen Tyler Franklin and Cody Tomplait. And yet Celina returned to the state championship game the very next season in a higher classification and was a single yard away from winning it all.
There is no question the Bobcats will miss the likes of D’Anton Lynn, Troy Franklin, C.J. Nielson, Seth Davis, Adam Thomas, Breck Holman and the dozens of others that departed in May. That doesn’t mean they are irreplaceable.
Offensively, Celina has found its quarterback in Cody Worrell. Waldrep, McCartney and sophomore Jose Romero give the Bobcats home run threats in the back field and out wide. Bidelman, Andy Rose, Braden Buchanan and Jordan Stout should all see time on the line.
On the defensive side of the ball, Lavey, a starter since his freshman season, is singlehandedly capable of making up for any deficiencies on the line and wreaking havoc in the running and passing game. Varsity newcomers Jay Perez, Brock Babb and Marcus Johnson may also factor into the mix. In the secondary, Worrell, Austin Carey and Josh Lavey provide stability and should help assuage the loss of Lynn.
As for the schedule, Ford noted that it might be the toughest the team has ever had in his time at Celina. Hard to know exactly how much stock to put in that considering his overall record as the Bobcat bench boss is 81-5.
For the first time in program history Celina will face teams in Class 4A. Non-district opponents include Lytle, TCA-Addison, Daingerfield, Fort Worth Arlington Heights and Whitehouse. Lytle (Temple) and Daingerfield (Royse City) are neutral site games. Defending bi-district champion Whitehouse will certainly provide stiff resistance, while Daingerfield will enter with a giant target on its back after halting Celina’s state-record 68-game winning streak in the 2002 Class 3A area playoffs.
The Bobcats open up district play in October against Sanger, which returns 27 letter winners from last season’s 3-7 squad. Perhaps the biggest district collision comes against Gainesville, the last team to have beaten the Bobcats during the regular season. Gainesville picked apart Celina, 44-14, on Oct. 24, 2003. The rematch will come exactly five years later. The Leopards amassed a dingy 1-9 record last season but return 14 starters.
Celina then closes out the district schedule with Whitesboro and Argyle as it attempts to win a fifth straight district title. The Bearcats went 7-3 in 2007 and bring back eight defensive starters. Argyle made it three rounds deep in the playoffs a season ago and has a big-time target in 210-pound receiver Brady Brown.
Celina will scrimmage Bridgeport, a playoff qualifier in District 8-3A last season, at 7 p.m. today. From there, it is all business as the Bobcats hit the road for on-the-record action against 29-3A representative Lytle the following week.
