BANGS – The Jason Cole coaching era in Bangs kicked off Monday morning, as the new head coach attempts to the lead the Dragons to the playoffs for a second consecutive season.
The Dragons return four offensive and five defensive starters from a 7-5 bi-district championship squad a year ago, a team in which Cole served as offensive coordinator under former head coach Kyle Maxfield.
“Coach Maxfield ran a good football program so we’re able to start fast this year,” Cole said. “The kids are ahead of where we were last year in their knowledge of the offense and defense. We had a really good spring. In May we did a lot of football and in June we had quite a few practices. The kids did a great job of showing up and learning.”
The Dragons averaged 30 points and 322 yards – 240 rushing and 82 passing – per game on offense in 2022, while the defense gave up 28 points and 392 yards – 277 on the ground and 115 through the air – per outing.
Regarding the preseason practices, Cole said, “We’re keeping the same structure for the most part. It was very good last year, but we’re going to add more weights in and try and have more enthusiasm. We don’t talk about winning every day, we talk about being a great teammate – showing up and having a great attitude. That’s where our emphasis is.”
Cole reported 50 players at Monday’s first practice and added, “I expect that to grow closer to 60 here in a week or so.”
As for the rest of the initial week of practice, Cole said, “The first part of the year is not really two-a-days anymore, it’s one long practice and all the kids will get a lot of reps and do a lot of running. We film every practice and we’ll watch that film, so this is a big teaching time for us and a time to get them in great shape.”
Bangs is scheduled to scrimmage Brady at home Friday, Aug. 11, then venture to Stamford Thursday, Aug. 17 for the final scrimmage before the Friday, Aug. 25 season opener at archrival Early.
The Dragons will host an intrasquad scrimmage and ice cream social Saturday morning at Memorial Stadium.
Bangs’ season preview story will appear Aug. 18 on BrownwoodNews.com as part of the Pigskin Preview series.
