Cavaliers and head coach Richard Carson looking forward to upcoming football season

THE WOODLANDS, Texas - With football season nearing, Woodlands Online sat down with the head coaches of the local area CISD football teams to reflect about last year's season and talk about goals for the 2015 season. See what the College Park High School football head coach, Richard Carson had to say:

Q: Can you give a brief recap on your team’s 2014 football season?

A: Last season we made the playoffs. We had not made it in a couple of years. Since we’ve been here, we’ve either made playoffs or almost come down to the last game to get in the playoffs. People would look at our record and see that it was not a winning record, and some people would say that’s not a successful year, but I think we played a very tough schedule. We opened up with Pearland. Everybody we played were playoff teams. We played very well early on, but we just kind of found ways not to win, but overall we had a good year. Our goal was to make the playoffs, and we did. First round we get Westfield who’s one of the top teams in the state. They went to the semifinals, so it’s a tough first round, and we got beat. Overall I think it was a good year, and it laid a foundation hopefully for this year.

Q: What were the team’s greatest strengths last year?

A: Last year, I think defensively our strength was our D-line. Connor Weaverling was a three-year starter, and he’s going off to Baylor to play, and Roosevelt Henderson is going to Texas Southern. He was a three-year guy. That part on the defensive side was a strength. Offensively, we had two other three-year starters. It was our starting left tackle and our tight end who had played for us for three years, Ben Shepard and Chris Barnes. I think part of our strength was it was a good group of guys who liked each other with team chemistry. You don’t get that every year. Every year is different with the make up of the team, but it was a fun group to coach.

Q: What needs to improve in order for your team to harness a successful season?

A: I think for us, number one, we have to stay healthy. We’re one of the smaller schools in our district, so a lot of times a lot of people don’t know what that means. Especially in football, numbers matter, and staying healthy matters. We’re not overrun with a lot of depth. The thing we have to do offensively is we’ve got to win the turn over battle. We can’t turn the football over. We’ve got to take it away more on defense than we give it away on offense. I think if we can improve on anything, it’s no turn overs. Eliminate turnovers and any kind of unforced errors on offense. I think the thing for everybody is don’t give up on big plays. Make people work to score because people this day and age are going to score. They’re going to find ways to do it. We’ve got to play smart and not just make mistakes and give up big plays.

Q: Is it difficult for the team to adjust to no longer having last year’s starting seniors?

A: That’s one of the cool things about coaching. Every year it’s a different mix. We’re in this business where we’re trying to win football games, but we’re trying to grow young men. We’re trying to teach them to mature, teach them to be leaders. Every year, you kind of watch that happen. You asked if it was difficult. Would I rather have those guys still on our football team? Shoot, yeah I would, but the good thing about it is you get another batch of kids and watch them step up, watch them grow. That starts happening in the off season. You start off season for the next year while the graduating seniors are still in your class. When you start the second semester they’ve moved on to things. It’s different. Once that semester turns over and those guys aren’t here everyday and they don’t see them everyday, you just watch the leadership start to grow. It’s the good and bad about what we do, but we know that’s going to happen. We tell the kids eventually you’re going to play your four years, and it’s going to be over, and then the next batch comes. The fun part of it though is trying to mold the next group of kids.

Q: How would you describe the talent of the athletes who are starting their first year on varsity?

A: We do have some guys that are returning. Offensively, we have three running backs on the offensive side who played the whole time, and we’ll do things with all three of them at one time. A.J. Sanders, Dominic Garcia and Dane Nichols are going to kind of be the heart and soul of what we do. On the offensive line, we have Zach Renberg coming back. We have a couple of guys coming back. We have some new guys coming. Most of our guys that have a chance to play this year for us played a little bit on the varsity, maybe a game or two. They were up or down through the year, so you play a lot of times with senior offensive linemen. They wait their turn to come up. The key is we’re going to have a competition at quarterback. We have Jordan Turnquest who is a junior and Connor Kid who’s a senior. They were both on the JV and on the varsity. They both took a couple of varsity snaps last year. They both mainly played on JV most of the year. Those guys are great kids. They’re good decision makers. They’re smart kids and high quality kids. I think they’ll do a great job for us this year. On the defensive side, we have some kids coming back. I talked about defensive linemen being the strength of our team last year, and I talked about two graduating seniors. Well John Love was one of them, and I think he’s going to be one of the best players in the city and in the area this year. He’s a defensive lineman. He played on the varsity last year and had a big impact for us. He’s going to do great things for us this year. We’re plugging holes. You asked about first year players. We run a football program. We don’t just have a varsity football team. We have a program, and if you have a good program, you’re training kids that when someone graduates, the next one steps up and fills the hole whether it’s in that season or it’s the next year. I would say the vast majority of our first year players got what I call varsity reps last year in practice. They worked with our varsity kids. They got coached like a varsity player, so we’re expecting great things out of them.

Q: Where do you think your team’s strengths lie this year?

A: Offensively, it’s going to be in our back field. Those guys are coming back and they’re going to be the strength of our team. They won’t always be in the back field. We’ll spread them out and do some things with them, but I think that’s going to be the key to it. I think defensively, we have two defensive linemen, John Love and Avery O’Callaghan coming back, and we’re starting up front with those guys. Sean Milligan is the line backer and we have some speed in our secondary, and we have some guys coming back. I think on that side of the ball that will be a big plus for us.

Q: What have y’all been doing to prepare for the season?

A: Working. Sweating. When the season gets over you start off season training. You’re in the weight room a lot. You’re doing all kinds of drills. We didn’t put pads on in the spring, so that’s why we’re starting a week early. This is our second year to do that. We didn’t put pads on in the spring, but we did lots of football in the spring. So this summer we’ve had our strength and conditioning program, and we’ve had a great turnout for that. The kids have worked hard. We had 7-on-7 going. A lot of our kids are two-sport or multi-sport athletes. They do more than one thing, and so in the summer it’s a big thing for us. We want them in the weight room. We want them to get their conditioning, but they’re involved in a lot of things like baseball and basketball. We’ve been doing that and like I said, we’ve been doing our 7-on-7 thing. It never ends. The kids go out of town, go to church camp, go on vacation, but when they’re in town, they’re here working.

Q: Can you describe your team using only one word?

A: Tough.

Q: What is rewarding about being this team’s coach?

A: You watch them grow up. It’s my 31st year doing this. I have a guy on my staff who was on my first team I ever coached in 7th grade football when I started 31 years ago. I get to watch them grow up. I get to watch them go from little boys to grown men and daddies and husbands. At College Park, we’re in a great community with great kids and great parents to support us. You get to watch them grow up and become men, and that’s the best part about it.

Q: What mindset do you want your team to maintain throughout the season?

A: Stay positive and see the big picture. If they’re keeping score, I want to win every game. In the preseason, we’re going to try to win every game. When preseason’s over, everybody’s 0-0, and it doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter if you’re 0-3 during the preseason or 3-0. Let’s look at the big picture. Our goal is to get into the playoffs. That’s the goal. Win whatever games we have to win to get into the playoffs. Sometimes you lose sight of what’s important. You lose sight of the big picture. We want them to focus on the end goal. Most of the time for us, it comes down to the last game just like it did last year. It came down to the very last game to decide whether we’re in the playoffs or not. Just stay focused until the end, because sometimes it comes down to the last play of the last game in the season that makes that determination. So stay focused until the very end.