Football season, like any sports season, is always so fast-paced leaving little time to actually see the whole picture. And then it’s over in a flash. From the massive amount of time that the coaches put in, to the self-sacrificing of the players, to the everything revolves around football lifestyle of the parents. It honestly takes a village to make a successful sports season. Now that football has ended and the dust has settled, I asked Coach Michael Meador to shine a light on a few of his players that assisted in making the Hackett Hornets all the buzz this past football season.
The first Hornet MVP is from the offense, #4 junior, Avery Hester. He had 76 rushes for 481 yards and 10 TDs. Also passing for 55 completions for 1336 yards and 16 TDS. “Avery stepped in and took over the offense. This is his first year starting at quarterback and he quickly became a leader. He made some really good decisions at crucial times during several games.”
Next would be the offensive line. “They set the tone during several games. One of the biggest reasons we had success this year was being able to run the football behind our offensive line. The starting offensive linemen are #67 junior Dylan Jetton, sophomores #60 Mason Oelke and #75 Isaiah Carter, and seniors #72 Trevor Woody and #77 Briar Goines. We had back to back games with over 260 yards on the ground in our two biggest wins of the year.”
On defense, one MVP is #12 sophomore, Peyton Hester. “He ended the year with 97 solo tackles and 47 assisted tackles. He made plays all over the field and lead our team in tackles. He became better and better every game. He was also extremely difficult to block.”
The other MVP on defense is #22 junior, Fischer Shipman. “He had 54 solo tackles, 33 assists, and two interceptions. He moved from a rolled down safety to the safety up top and did not miss a beat. He made some really big hits and really controlled the middle of the field to make it difficult on a quarterback to throw to the middle of the field.”
The MVP’s for special teams is #66 sophomore, Jesse Ezpara, and #5 junior, Ty Smith. “Jesse has a really strong leg and had several touchbacks on kickoff. He also averaged almost 35 yards per punt. Whenever you can flip the field when punting it helps your defense out and Jesse did that several times. Ty has a great motor on him. He is going 100% the whole game. He made so many plays with his effort level. I remember several plays where he came out of nowhere and ran somebody down across the field making a tackle.”
Pictures contributed by Mandy Foster
