The Bridge City Cardinals have a new mentor calling the shots for the football team. Cody McGuire has coached football all over the state of Texas. His last two years were very successful as an assistant coach at Austin Westlake where they won back-to-back state championships. He hopes to start that same tradition at Bridge City.
McGuire inherits some very good Cardinals on offense. Ethan Oceguera is back at quarterback for the Cardinals. Oceguera is characterized by McGuire as a great young man, great player, great leader. Joining Oceguera in the backfield at running back is JS Bearden who rushed for 498 yards and two touchdowns last year.
The Bridge City offensive line to block for the ball carriers includes Isai Cantu at left tackle, Hunter Bellanger the left guard, Ethan Ply will be the center, Matt Livingston is the right tackle, and Shaun Hallman was scheduled to play at the on the line but will miss the season after having leg surgery. “Receivers coming back are JT Fielder, Joey Murty, and Kyler Garlaska,” McGuire reported.
The Cardinals’ secondary will be the leaders for Coach McGuire on defense. Dorian Pruitt, Deegan King, Gavin Garrett, and Davien Edwards all have experience as defensive backs for Bridge City.
The linebackers will be aptly played by Harrison Gauthier and Cale Newsome. Mason Pruitt will help out at linebacker. McGuire indicated, “In the d-line we’ve got Conner Ayers, Vance Thomas, Nick LeJuene, and probably Aidan Galvan.”
Coach McGuire is looking for contributions from some Cardinals in new positions on the Bridge City varsity. Sophomores LeJuene and Galvan as mentioned are expected to be starters in the defensive line. Ayden Richardson is going to be a defensive end and could see playing time on both sides of the ball. “Those are some of the young guys that are going to help,” McGuire pointed out.
With a couple of weeks before the start of the regular season Coach McGuire said what he is looking for from the Cardinals in practices and scrimmages is more physicality. On the offensive side the linemen and the receivers need to be more physical. McGuire added, “We talked about some of those young guys on defense, they’re going to have to step up and I believe they will.”
It is a new year with a new head coach, and McGuire expects the Cardinals to be better than before. Coming from Austin Westlake Coach McGuire concedes the goal is a state championship, but admits that there is no magic pill instead it will take a lot of work to achieve that ultimate goal.
There are three goals for Bridge City football that McGuire does want to reach each week. “We expect to be the best team every Friday night, the most physical team, and most well-conditioned team every Friday night,” McGuire concluded.
-Dan Perrine, KOGT-
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