Page 14 - 2016 Football

Now in Class 3A, Dragons’ expectations remain the same
By Kev Moyé
News-Times Staff
JUNCTION CITY – The Junction City Dragons plan on having an impressive season.
But that’s nothing new. Winning at Junction City is not hoped for – it’s expected.
But the Dragons will have a new group of challenges this year.
Due to an increase in enroll- ment, Junction City was bumped up to Class 3A for the current Arkansas Activities Association classification cycle.
So this is the first of two seasons in which the Dragons will be in a new conference facing unfamiliar opposition. Junction City is now in the 6-3A, a league which ranges from the Mississippi River to the Arkansas-Texas border.
But none of that matters to the Dragons.
They’re just eager to com- pete.
“We expect to do a good job. The kids have worked hard,” said Dragon Coach David Carpenter. “Like always, we expect good things to result from all the work we’ve put into this season.”
Junction City had its sea- son ended in round two of the playoffs a year ago. But to their credit, the Dragons have worked hard to make sure it does not happen again.
“They didn’t like it. They’re not used to being eliminated that early. The guys wanted to make things better, where that doesn’t happen again,” the coach said. “The players know what they have to do.”
the Dragons can have a return to normalcy while facing 3A opposition?
“We’ve competed against teams from higher classifi- cations before. And that’s in all of our sports,” the coach answered. “They know what we have to do to compete at that level.”
If Carpenter has it his way, the Dragons will start the season off well and steadily improve. However, doing that is easier said than done.
Therefore, Carpenter will be stern yet patient with the Dragons.
players as we’ll have, I hope to begin to peak when conference play begins,” he stated. “That’s what we’re shooting for. The first three weeks of the season, we have three good teams we’ll play. Hopefully, once we get into conference play is when we’ll start playing really good ball.”
The players are cognizant that things will not be as they once were.
“They’re ready to play, but a new challenge has arrived. We have seven new opponents on our schedule,” Carpenter said. “The only three that we have played in recent years is
Smackover. Every other team we have is new.”
The Dragons open their campaign at Bearden. Week two, Junction City will host the England Lions. Carpenter’s squad then concludes non-con- ference play with a game at Haynesville, La.
On September 23, the Dragons commence 6-3A play at McGehee.
On paper, what is likely to be the most difficult stretch of league games for Junction City occurs in weeks eight and nine of the campaign.
Contributed Photo
week.
Nevertheless, Carpenter has
an optimistic outlook about the season.
“If everything falls into place and the players stay healthy, I look for us to have a real good year. But there are so many factors that will play into this. We’re just kind of waiting to see how things go,” the coach said. “The older guys are push- ing the younger players and making them work in practice. The guys know what we have to do to be successful.
“To be successful you have to work at it. You just can’t step on the field and hope you’re
Junction City Dragons: The 2016 Junction City Dragons are shown in the photo above. Coached by David Carpenter, the Dragons expect to have an outstanding season as they move up from 2A to Class 3A. The Dragons open the season at Bearden.
“Like all teams, especially
Why is Carpenter confident with having as many young Bearden, Haynesville, La., and host Fordyce the following going to win.”
Junction City Dragons take special teams seriously
By Kev Moyé
News-Times Staff
JUNCTION CITY – The concept of special teams is taken seriously by the Junction City Dragons.
For years, coach David Carpenter’s program has enjoyed an advantage over most of its opposition due partially to having solid special teams.
Carpenter demands that his team is disciplined when it comes to special teams.
For that reason, Junction City has been able to earn some important vic- tories during Carpenter’s tenure.
“The players have seen, and we as coaches remind them constantly, what special teams have done for us. For example, two seconds left in a game and we make a field goal to win a state title,” the coach said. “Or last season, we allowed a kick return and we lost a playoff game because of it. We’ve talked about how many punts we’ve blocked over the years and how it’s turned a game around. The kids understand the importance of what the kickoff team is.”
The Dragons always have a litany of fast, explosive players. They once again possess that brand of personnel. As a
result, Carpenter has several quality options for the Dragons’ return game.
“Cordé Meadows, C.J. Johnson, Tykeon Hollidy are all guys with good speed who can do well as a returner. Each one can be used in certain situ- ations,” Carpenter said. “But we have about seven guys we can use in differ- ent spots because they have experience returning in different situations. That’s a good option to have because it allows you to do a lot of different things.”
Junction City’s punter is experienced. But the other aspects of kicking are somewhat uncertain.
“Tez Brown returns as our punter. He’s done it for a couple of seasons. We have confidence in him and what he’s capable of doing,” Carpenter said. “As for kicking, last season we had numer- ous guys doing it. Hopefully, we’ll get that worked out. Extra point and kickoff are among the areas we have to do a lot more work in.”
Junction City has a couple of players trying to secure the spot of its lead kicker.
“We have four guys working on the kickoff situation. We have three or four
The Dragons play at Smackover, October 21 and
14 – Thursday, September 1, 2016 – El Dorado NEWS-TIMES
Junction City
See SPECIAL TEAMS, Page 15