Some believe we are in a rebuilding year, but Coach Tucker Tayor answered that question right up front. We have lost a lot of talented football players over the last three years, some of whom are playing football just down the road, but head coach Tucker Taylor believes there are athletes ready to step up and, given the chance, will do well for the Pioneers.
There are four seniors this year: Sonny Phillips, Darrell Sunchild, Ryder Galbavy, and Severin Heimbigner. Although he cannot play this year because of reoccurring injuries, he wants to help manage the team.
Ryder told me, "We got a pretty good, solid, young group of guys, very young. They're going to get a lot better as the season goes on. Ryder plays tight end on offense and end on defense.
Tucker Taylor is looking forward to his first year as head coach for the Big Sandy Pioneers. "It's going to be fun. It's a good, good group of kids to work with. We've graduated from the last classes that we've been really successful with, but it will be a good thing because we have a group of guys who haven't had much real varsity time. It's making the team better because we had a lot of guys stepping up into those roles.
We can expect a lot. Wesley and Carter both had a really good football camp. Carter had a really good football camp. I appreciate the upperclassman leaders, They've been good. Ryan Labuda is the assistant coach, and Trent Cline is helping as a volunteer. We have a good little thing going right now. So it should be fun."
"Our first game is in Bridger on Saturday. It's a long trip, five hours, but I think it'll be fun. It will be a time for team bonding getting down there. There's a lot of unknown with Bridger because they've graduated a lot of kids, too. I think they had a coaching change as well. They spent time learning our new plays during the first couple of weeks in practice. We will run some of the plays we've run in the past, but there are a lot of new plays in the playbook. These first couple of weeks are just kind of figuring out our system. There's going to be some new wrinkles in the offense." Tucker is the offensive coordinator and head coach, but the offense is kind of mine. Ryan's taking up the defense. He'll be the defensive coordinator.
The first home game is September 13 against Hot Springs. We play Power-Dutton-Brady September 27th
