Bobcats "Refreshing," Preparing for District Title Clash with Haltom During Bye Week

SAN ANGELO, TX-- The Central Bobcats couldn’t have gotten their bye week at a better time.

In the past, Central’s bye week has come the week before district play starts. This year it comes after 11 straight weeks of practice and before the Bobcats’ district title clash with Haltom to close out the season.

They’re excited about that respite.

“We’re just kinda refreshing,” Central head coach Brent Davis said. “We’re gonna work out some on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. Give our kids a couple days plus the weekend days off and kinda get refreshed and heal up some. Just get away from here. We’ve been here since Aug. 13 almost every day.”

The Bobcats were always going to have to grind out those nine weeks of the season. After week 2, when senior QB Maverick McIvor went down for the season, that grind looked a little tougher. Davis feels his guys came out on the better end of it.

“It’s a grind to have your open date this late in the year,” Davis added, “but I feel like we came out of our first nine games really good and here we are with a chance to rest.”

After Central’s 10-2 win over Hurst Bell, sophomore QB Malachi Brown sounded relieved going into the bye week.

“All the players who are roughed up and sore from nine weeks of playing straight [can recover],” Brown said after the win. “It feels good to get some rest and get ready for Haltom. We’ve gotta make sure we have a good gameplan for them.”

While Central is thankful for break, they’re not letting the added time to prepare go to waste.

“It was hard to get here. I mean it was a grind to get here,” Davis emphasized. “But now that we’re here, we’ve got an extra week to prepare for the best team in the district. [Haltom is] undefeated right now. If we beat ‘em, we get a piece of the district title no matter what else happens. So, we’re excited about the opportunity. We’ve won five district championships in a row. We’re trying to win six and it’s a big deal to this football team.”

Even though the Bobcats will be off the field Friday night, District 3-6A could still see some shake up in week 9. Euless Trinity hosts Abilene this week. If Abilene were to pull an upset, it would put the Eagles in the playoffs and Trinity one game behind Central in the standings.

That would mean Central could clinch the no. 1 seed as Division I representative of 3-6A. In turn, that means Central would host the no. 2 see from 4-6A, which would be Arlington Martin or Arlington Lamar.

As District 4-6A sits right now, Arlington Martin would be the second seed.