The Mansfield Tiger Junior High and Senior High football teams are looking at the upcoming 2022 with a change in mind. The teams are aiming to buck the system’s status quo of what everyone else does by creating their own identity for the program. They want to start a new standard for Mansfield football. Mansfield started their very first camp of 2022 at Waldron on Tuesday, July 12th. But why the late start?
While many high school football programs around the state were hitting multiple team camps and 7-on-7’s during the spring and early summer, the Mansfield Tigers were nowhere to be found. The reason for that was by design. Tigers Head Coach, Tim Cothran, decided to take a different approach for Mansfield’s first half of the offseason. Instead of following the crowd, Cothran spent the Tigers time building up the team’s strength, speed, and conditioning while also focusing on polishing up on position techniques. Concentrating on fundamentals while other programs spend time at camps might seem like a gamble to some people, but not to Cothran and his coaching staff. Gamble or not, the Maverick move looked promising at Tuesday’s camp. The Tigers stepped out of the early summer shadows and stole the late summer spotlight in Waldron.
Mansfield didn’t play 7-on-7 against random strangers. The Tigers lined up against Waldron and Magazine, two of their annual nonconference opponents. With each program knowing each other quite well, one would figure to see some struggles from the Tigers. Everyone quickly realized though that that was not the case, especially on offense. An impressed Coach Cothran said “Overall I think both our Junior High and Senior High offenses did very well today. All of the quarterbacks looked smooth throwing the ball, our receiving corps ran crisp routes and made some great catches”. One of those great catches was made by sophomore Trey Powell who caught a circus catch from Fisher Willsey. Willsey put the ball to where only Powell could catch it and Powell superhero jumped over a defender to snag the pass. Even with the amazing catch, the overall offense looked so good that Cothran and offensive coordinator Layton Robinson couldn’t think of a single player who stood out the most. “Nobody stood above anyone else because they all did that well” said Cothran. How good were they you ask? Well, it merely took the Tigers offenses an average of three plays per score in their scrimmages. Having a plethora of weapons to threaten opponents within 2022 will be a breath of fresh air for the fans in Red.
Positive offensive production is always a plus, but as the old saying goes, it’s the defense that wins championships. Although the Tigers showed they have a solid passing game when they had they have the ball, they made sure that no one else had that same advantage. Junior Tyler Turnipseed provided smothering coverage while also swatting away multiple passes. Senior linebackers Reegan Emery, Caleb Collier, and Kindel Noblett shut down any slant and shallow routes over the middle. The Senior High wasn’t the only solid defense as the Junior High crew stepped up big time in the pass defending department. Freshman Alex Hecox intercepted two passes for the Junior High team against Waldron. With Hecox picking off passes, Waldron and Magazine were forced to pull in their routes towards the middle of the field. Just like with Senior High, that was not a good idea for the Tigers opponents. Laying in wait for the Rattlers and Bulldogs were Ethan Martin and Zander Walters who shredded the offenses routes across the middle. “Our defenses did quite well today. There were a couple of missed assignments, but nothing that can’t be easily taken care of. We just need more repetition to make sure we’re getting where we’re supposed to be in certain situations. You can definitely tell that all of these players are willing to go all out to get better” said Coach Cothran.
The Tigers showed everyone that they’re a 10 out of 10 in their first 7-on-7. Having multiple skilled athletes to make up both smooth offenses and stolid defenses was something that raised an eyebrow or two in the stands and on the opposing sidelines. Mansfield will continue doing camps through the month of July with six still on the calendar. Three of them will be at Mena, there are two more at Waldron, and one at Hackett. Their next camp will be at Waldron again on Thursday, July 14th. This time though it won’t a mere 7-on-7. No siree, the next camp will include the beefcakes…the trench warriors…the Hoss’s…that’s right, the linemen will be involved this time.
