The West Orange Stark Mustangs were undefeated last year until the second round of the state playoffs. The Coronavirus which disrupted much of the season caused eight Mustangs to miss the final game against China Spring because of exposure to the virus resulting in a loss for West Orange-Stark.
Coach Cornel Thompson is counting on an experienced offensive line to lead the Mustangs on offense. Everybody in the o-line started last year for West Orange-Stark. Davin Heard, Evan Gray, Demetrius Hunter, Bryson Jordan, and Andrew Wilson are all back. “We will go as our offensive line goes because that’s the only place that we have any experience,” Thompson announced.
There is one other noteworthy player back on offense for the Mustangs in senior running back Elijah Gales. Last season Gales rushed for 462 yards with four touchdowns while also catching passes for 116 yards and another touchdown.
Thompson is cautious in proclaiming this year’s West Orange-Stark defense being as good as it has been in previous seasons. He ranks all the Mustangs as either suspects or prospects and right now the coach admits there are a lot of suspects on defense.
Two defensive tackles should make an impact for West Orange-Stark. Bryson Jordan is a two-way starter at one of the tackles teaming with Carmello Jones in the front line.
Dontrey McClain returns at the rover and safety Jadon Jones with three interceptions last year are back in the Mustangs’ secondary. The remainder of the West Orange-Stark defensive team is completely unproven according to Thompson.
An important position to fill is at noseguard so Thompson does not have to play it by committee with offensive linemen. Thompson advised, “Right now our defensive football team is suspect.”
There are a couple of young Mustangs that Coach Thompson expects to make an impact this year. At linebacker DeShon Brunson moves up from the junior varsity and is expected to be the starting strongside linebacker.
Sophomore Jalen Lewis is hoped to come forward and make a contribution for West Orange-Stark. “Not many of the younger kids have stood out in the early workouts, mostly juniors and seniors, our sophomores are struggling right now,” Thompson reported.
At the time of our interview, Thompson didn’t divulge a starting quarterback with three players competing for that spot.
The two scrimmages are being counted on by Thompson to give the Mustangs an opportunity to fill some holes especially on defense. The coach expects his players to perform and play hard in the scrimmages.
Practices have been intense as always at West Orange-Stark and will remain so before the start of the regular season. Thompson stated, “We haven’t had really any live competition, what I call live, the guys think they’re going live, but they ain’t going live yet.”
As the winningest high school football team in Texas the expectations for West Orange-Stark are always high. Coach Thompson provided his expectations for the season as competing for another district championship while still playing one game at a time.
Looking ahead by the Mustangs is strictly forbidden by Thompson and he dares them to mention anybody other than the people they are playing that particular week. “We always have aspiration of being in the playoffs if we take care of our business consistently from week to week discipline ourselves and do what we’ve got to do to get through our non-district which is really a tough non-district and go through our district which is going to be much, much improved this year and then we’ll see what we do once we get in the playoffs,” Thompson concluded.
-Dan Perrine, KOGT-
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