GRIDIRON GLANCE ’25: Rising Star Wildcats

August 16, 2025 at 6:18 am Updated: August 16th, 2025 at 4:40 pm Derrick Stuckly

RISING STAR – The first year of the Brent Williamson coaching tenure at Rising Star ended without a playoff berth following back-to-back district championship seasons, but the Wildcats anticipate better days in 2025 after last year’s 4-6 campaign.

“These guys have bought in,” Williamson said. “Last year I was the new guy and you could say they didn’t trust me yet. Now they trust me, the kids are buying in and working a lot harder and we’re looking forward to hopefully some good things.”

Players to watch for the Wildcats include all-state senior linebacker Anthony Pollard (106 tackles, 13 for loss, 1 interception, 1 fumble recovery), all-district senior defender Leland Schenk (80 tackles, 18 for loss, 1 fumble recovery), juniors Payton McGinn, Pacey McGinn, and Kason McGinn, along with varsity newcomers Chance Wells, up from the junior varsity last year, and JV Kelly, a transfer from Buena Vista.

“We’ve got some guys that can go and some guys that can hit,” Williamson said. “We’re hoping the physicality side of it this year will make a difference. Last year was kind of a year of adversity. We had multiple injuries last year, but we’ve got a couple of those guys back. They’re not 100 percent right now, but the main thing is those guys getting their confidence back and knowing their body is just as good as it was. Midseason hopefully everybody’s healed up physically and mentally and we’ll be ready to rock and roll about the time we hit district. We’ve got 15 kids right now and some young ones that have to mature a little bit and I think they will. Preseason has been really good, everyone’s working hard, and with the effort’s that been put in by these guys, we are a lot farther along than we were last year at this time.”

Rising Star kicks off its season at Highland (Sept. 29) before hosting Lingleville (Sept. 5), traveling to Perrin-Whitt (Sept. 12), welcoming Hermleigh (Sept. 19) and Gorman (Sept. 27) in consecutive weeks, and visiting Priddy (Oct. 3) in the pre-district finale.

“I want to see growth and maturity from the young guys,” Williamson said of the early goals. “I think the upperclassmen are there. If we can come together as a family, anything can happen. We have to have that family mentality, being able to trust each other. Last year we didn’t completely have that and you could see that throughout the season. Toward the end of the year we started developing that mentality.”

The Wildcats’ District 13-A Division II schedule features a date at Zephyr (Oct. 10), Blanket (Oct. 17) coming to town, the short drive to Sidney (Oct. 24) and the home and regular season finale against Gustine (Oct. 31). Rising Star’s bye falls in the final week of the regular season.

“Last year it was a slobber knocker and it’s going to be the same this year,” Williamson said of the district race. “Any team, any given Friday night will have an opportunity to win. We’ve got to take care of the football. Last year we turned the football over way too many times and that put us behind the eight-ball and that put us on the short end of the stick. If we take care of the football this year and kids continue to work hard, any Friday night anybody can win.”

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RISING STAR WILDCATS 2025 FOOTBALL SCHEDULE

August 29	at Highland	7:30 p.m.
September 05	Lingleville	7:30 p.m.
September 12	at Perrin-Whitt	7:30 p.m.
September 19	Hermleigh	7 p.m.
September 27	Gorman#	7 p.m.
October 03	at Priddy	7:30 p.m.
October 10	at Zephyr*	7:30 p.m.
October 17	Blanket*	7:30 p.m.
October 24	at Sidney*	7:30 p.m.
October 31	Gustine*	7:30 p.m.
November 07	OPEN