Hometown Sports Football Preview: Pocahontas Redskins

welcome in to the Arkansas sports Network's Hometown Sports football preview proudly presented by Arkansas Tech University D3 Auto Sales and by metcafe trucking company today we sit down with Pocahontas Redskins head coach Casey Chester welcome everyone to the hometown Sports Arkansas football preseason preview presented to you by the Arkansas sports network I'm Alex gallion along me is the head football coach for the Pocahontas Redskins coach Chester coach appreciate you so much for being a part of this interview today thanks for having me man I wanted to I guess we might as well just go ahead and start this off let's talk about last season um obviously I'm pretty sure you guys had went was it two and four in conference play or was it what was we started out we started out 0 and five 0 and five we lost the first two conference games to River Crest and goell then we won four in a row then we lost the last one to so we were uh what is that three and four in the conference three and four finished four SE four SE so uh was there a playoff run yeah we got we went to the wit the wh was when we played them they were n and one we led the whole game they went for two with 20 seconds to go and beat us they beat us by one that well we were very proud of our effort our kids left let it all on the field I mean it hurt but I was just very proud of their effort how they played well uh let's go ahead and talk about some uh returning players I'm sure and we'll talk kind of some who was some of yall's best seniors last year you we lost Reagan Wack he signed with Harding University so uh he was defensive end fullback we lost Caleb Bettis he was an all state player offensive tackle defensive end we lost Cooper sword he was leader in the secondary uh we lost Jack priv privet he was a he was hurt he was he wasn't supposed to come back he had a seasoning injury week six he came back kind of sparked our uh our little winning streak he's going to play baseball at ulr we lost Zane Hibert he was a do- it all kick returner uh play quarterback played running back played receiver played Safety so we're we're really going to miss those guys so returning players maybe Soph our leader is DJ Coffey he was all state last year he played quarterback this year he'll line up at quarterback he'll line up at receiver he'll line up at running back he'll play three safety and if I'm not wrong DJ yeah he plays plays basketball Short Stop on the baseball team great athlete is there any other returning players uh Landing getting he's a three-year starter on the offensive line Carter couch he's a threeyear starter but he's only 11th grader he moved up as a ninth Ty manard plays linebacker Ricky Regina plays linebacker we have a we have quite a few returning guys that have played a lot of football is there any Junior H that that's moved up from Junior our quarterback our Junior High quarterback last year we moved him up week eight he played quarterback a couple games Spencer James we moved a receiver up uh about week six Jared Mitchell he played with the high school last year as a ninth grader and we moved an inside linebacker up Isaac Molina so they've all had high school experience but we also we have some linemen uh Elijah Converse he's going to play Levi Hustler some bigger offensive linemen Evan Thomson's a defensive in ninth grader that's moved up he'll be a 10th grader we expect big things out of him is there any surprise players that may shock fans this year to see how the improvement from them last season well the at the team camps Mason priest has really played well receiver uh Ryder boss has played really well at inside linebacker so you know those guys give us confidence that they'll be ready to play now you being the head coach obviously of this team a lot of the spotlight either that being positive or negative is going to go to you most of the time want to talk a little bit about some of your assistance the guys well our offensive coordinator is Canon Davis he's been here 10 years uh does a great job our offensive line coach is Derek kber he's a POC graduate he's been at Marshall he's been at truman he came back a couple years ago uh our wide receiver coach is an Anthony Noster he's a he's I think this about his fourth year all the pocah hunas uh our linebacker coach is Jamie Ward he graduated here was a great player here probably the alltime leading tackle in pokas history he's our linebacker coach he played at UAM our defensive line coach is Garett counts uh he's a pocon graduate been here a long time he's been at Corning been at Jonesboro and uh our newest coach is Tyler lingo this is the second year he played for National Scrappers he was a part of some of their football state championships and he's also the state record holder in the disc still so he was a great athlete in high school he threw at ASU well I know you I know you guys have a pretty good track program here yes those guys all help or most of them helping track we have great assistant coaches very good to our kids uh very knowledgeable in the game so very lucky to have them yes so what is preseason with for you guys well we open up we're scrimmage in River Press they're are longtime rival they moved out of the conference so we're going to scrimmage them we open up with Salem a new opponent but man they've done really well in 3A a great program coach Watson does a great job then we go to Green County Tech haven't played them in a few years they're moving down from 6A and they're going back 5 yeah back to 5'8 and they're very physical so I don't know if that was a good good idea getting them on the schedule and then we play Brooklyn and we play Brooklyn over the last few years great opponent for us uh I mean we're team's very similar it's a great game yeah and they're still try to build their coaches doing a great job saw them at Team Camp they have a a great participation lots of players lots of good players so we'll be our work will be cut out for us there and now let's talk about some conference obviously we know Southside Bas has moved down from 5ast where you guys now they had a pretty good team last year but obviously we talking earie started they' lost some of their players what how do you feel about very good they probably had the best linebacker in the conference uh Plum plumber very good uh they're coach great coach uh very good at what he does they have a great staff now the the team to beat may be the Highland Rebels they return everybody you have a great young coach a lot of excitement they moved up a junior high that won our conference uh very very very good team and gos Go's really good coach Ernest does a great job they have some great skilled players yes uh but Truman I think has 60 players out we've seen him the team Camp very good bal's really good uh coaching does a great job at West Side they'll be ready to play K City's moving to the conference I don't know a whole lot about him but yeah a lot of coaches that I've talked to Hardy and a lot of coaches said they don't know a whole lot about so that's an unknown so our conference it's gotten a lot better uh you know River Crest moved out but when you add a Southside that's not not a whole lot of difference I got to ask you coach this season the poah will be successful if we stay healthy last year 0 and five start we probably had uh 16 players missed one of those games we weren't healthy we we have some good players but we have to keep them healthy get them all to August and ready to play we can keep them all healthy we can be competitive this is coach Chester of the poah redin again coach thank you so much for taking the time to do this interview you can check out all of the hometown Arkansas football sports pre-season uh interviews here live on the Arkansas Sports Network on YouTube and check us out on Facebook at Arkansas sports like us on Instagram as well I'm Alex gion we'll see you next time thanks again for joining us on the Aransas 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