Published: August 08, 2009 04:14 pm      

Deweyville football tuning in well

DEWEYVILLE — It’s going to be a highly-competitive District 23-2A race again this year and the Deweyville Pirates are looking to be right in the mix.

There will be no surprises in the Deweyville camp this year. Last season, the Pirates were picking up new schemes from first-year head coach Russell McDaniel.

The Pirates went on to post a 4-5 overall mark, 2-4 in 23-2A.

This season, it’s all by rehashing what they learned last year and re-tooling certain areas as McDaniel will lead the Pirates on the field for his second year.

“It’s been really hot, but the kids have been working hard,” said McDaniel Friday. “Those first few days are tough, alot of conditioning and all. It was great to put on the pads and watch them hit a little bit today.”

The Pirates return five starters on offense and five on defense.

Key veterans include running back Keeton Addison (850 yards and nine TDs in 2008) along with linemen Channing O’Bannion, Eddie Barlow and Zach Trahan and also new quarterback Michael Williams, linebacker Jacob Burris and defensive back Eric Avila.

“The kids pretty much have our system down pat,” said McDaniel. “The older kids are doing really well and we’re counting on their leadership to help out the younger ones. So far, they’ve been doing a good job.”

The Pirates remain as the smallest school enrollment-wise in 23-2A but they plan to battle hard once again in a rugged loop.

“If we can stay healthy, we can compete with anybody,” said McDaniel. “We do worry about depth. We’ve got three offensive lineman prospects that have went down already.”

The Pirates have two scrimmages set up.

They will take on Kirbyville and the Silsbee JV Aug. 15 at Silsbee High School and will visit an always gritty Hull-Daisetta unit Aug. 20.

“We’ve got a couple nice scrimmages set up and we’ll go from there,” said McDaniel. “We’ve got plenty of time to evaluate the kids before Sabine Pass comes to our place.”

The Pirates will open the regular season Aug. 28 at home against the Sabine Pass Sharks.