Water Valley Ready for Challenges in 2018

WATER VALLEY, TX-- The 2018 season is likely to present numerous challenges for the Water Valley Wildcats.

Coming off a district title, the Wildcats return four starters on each side of the ball, but lost six seniors. Because of that, a big group of freshmen enter this year’s team with the foundation laid.

“It’s huge for our program,” second-year head coach Keith Woolf said. “The program’s new. It’s different. We’re doing a little different than they’ve done things in the past.”

Woolf has been around 11-man football most of his life. He was the head coach at Anson in 2012 and 2013 before moving to Bastrop Cedar Ridge and then on the staff at Abilene Cooper prior to Water Valley. That means he’s brought 11-man blocking schemes to Water Valley and is picking up the six-man schemes along the way. 

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Above: Water Valley head coach Keith Woolf patrolling the field at their first practice. Aug. 6, 2018 (LIVE! Photo/Sam Fowler)

“I’m having to adapt to the six-man schemes,” Woolf added. “We may bring in the 11-man blocking schemes because that’s what we know. My offensive line coach has been with me for 10 years. That’s all he knows.

“(The district championship) validates what we’ve been doing. There’s no doubt about that,” Woolf said. “That helps the buy-in process...Most everything we do is like a big school because that’s all I know. Our players were here all summer. That tells you about their buy-in.”

The next challenge will be the company in Water Valley’s new district, District 8-1A DI. The five-team district features four playoff teams from a year ago, highlighted by regional powers Garden City (10-3) and Sterling City (6-5).

The Bearkats were a regional finalist a year ago and return a big portion of their team from last year.

“We knew when we got the draw that our district was going to be tough,” Woolf said of the 2018 realignment. “But we didn’t sit around and pout about it. We kept going to work knowing we’ve got some big dogs out there that we’ve got to face.”

Woolf would go on to say the Wildcats aren’t focused on their new district at the moment. Rather, they’re focused on getting their team ready for game one.

To do that, they have to find a way to make their size work in a game defined by speed.

“Conventional wisdom says this won’t work,” Woolf said. “We have to play to our strength.

“It’s an interesting challenge...Obviously, we have to stop people. At the six-man level, there’s high-scoring games. We don’t need to get into scoring contests. That’s not going to be our M.O. We don’t need to get into a 90 to 80 game. It’ll be a challenge. It’ll be interesting.”

Leading the young group of Wildcats will be running back and linebacker Max Bradley.

“He’s a major factor for us because he’ll start at backer and play some fullback for us,” Woolf said. “He’s a strong, physical kid. That brings an attitude and mentality to us. He’s going to be a major role player for us.”

The Wildcats open up their 2018 campaign at 7:30 p.m. on Aug. 31 at Robert Lee.