Bonar didn’t take over the Bellaire job until February of 2022, putting him behind while trying to get to know his team and this year he’s a lot more comfortable.

” Absolutely last year and this is bad I didn’t even know all of their names. We were starting camp and I did’t know who was who, we let a lot of guys do what they did the year before that really wasn’t what we were trying to do.”

Mark Bonar

” Second year everyone knows what they’re doing we know what to expect and plan to have a great season again.”

Drew White

” His playbook is special, coach Bonar is just a special coach not like any other he’s great. Great coach, great mentor, great everything.”

Mac Pettigrew

The continued growth will also be helped by the fact that they return eight players on the offensive side of the ball, including senior Drew White who ran for more than six-hundred yards and 11 touchdowns last season. Senior Chickie LaMotte returns at fullback, and seniors Luca D’Aquilla and Kahlil Kimbro are back at receiver.

On the line, they return seniors Dalton Smelko and Joey Nixon at tackle and watch out for 6’4″ 320 junior Jayden Powell at guard with seniors Logan Edgar and Jayson Lemley at tight – end.

At quarterback, they will have another Heatherington with junior Luke taking over for his brother Jake.”

We’re real happy with our skill guys and were working real hard on the line and we have guys on the line we lost our three inside guys they were fantastic and we think we have guys that can replace them it will take a little time but they’re going to be good too.”

Mark Bonar

Defensively they return their leading tackler from last year in Edgar who had 97 tackles at linebacker along with White who had 18 tackles for loss, Lemley and sophomore Graham Campbell. LaMotte returns at one end with Smelko and junior Brody Holt at the tackles. Pettigrew at safety and Kimbro and junior Maurice Webb at the corners.

” They are running to the ball in the scrimmage against River sometimes we had all 11 guys on the ball, their enthusiasm is really high it’s been a lot of fun.”

Mark Bonar

The Big Reds will open their challenging schedule on the 18th with a trip to Garaway.