Story by Rusty Ellis
It is just over a week away from the start of the High School Football Season, and teams all around the Upper Cumberland are beginning to prepare for their week one matchups.
The Monterey Wildcats face Cannon County in week one, and while he feels like his team still has plenty of improvements to make, Wildcats’ Head Coach Scott Hughes knows his guys are chomping at the bit to get the season started.
“They are ready to compete, and they are ready to compete against someone else,” Hughes said. “With our numbers, it does get old and very monotonous hitting the same guy every day because we don’t have the numbers to flip positions, but there is excitement in our building.”
Just like other teams, the Wildcats are getting to prepare for the season in a way that feels more normal. Due to TSSAA guidelines last season, teams were not able to compete in 7-on-7s and spring ball was cancelled along with spring sports. Getting back into the groove of a normal offseason has been a breath of fresh air for both Hughes and the team.
“It was just good to feel like you were back to normal,” Hughes said. “This year, we could get back to being a team. Last year at times, we didn’t get to do a lot of team-building, so it is really good to have your whole team together.”
Monterey returns key contributors at several spots, most notably in the backfield with Juniors Matthew Montgomery and Mason Bowman. Montgomery heads into his second season as the field general for the Wildcats, and Hughes believes a normal offseason will benefit him greatly.
“I think you are going to see a completely different player just from a confidence standpoint,” Hughes said. “Last year, I think Matthew was thrown into kind of a bad situation; he was a sophomore, first-year starter, and all of a sudden, you get no spring, no 7-on-7s, and you have to roll out there and play…going through this offseason has been huge. He can do so many different things and he doesn’t get as much credit as he deserves. He’s more versatile than what a lot of people see.”
Bowman has been one of the top backs in the Upper Cumberland in his first two seasons with the Wildcats, rushing for 1,330 yards and 17 touchdowns last season.
“He’s had a great offseason,” Hughes said. “Mason is another tremendous young man…he’s a tremendous athlete, but he’s also the total package. He will also be the first one to tell you that a lot of it starts up front for him, and we are going to have to work really hard up front because we know he is going to be a focal point for other teams.”
The Wildcat backfield will also see its fair share of contributions from players like Michael Allred, Eli Saylors and Adyn Reagan. Carter Charlton, Logan Montgomery and Byron Borjas pose the main threats in the passing game.
If you ask Hughes, however, the biggest x-factors will be the players in the trenches.
“We look a little bit different right now, and we don’t have a tremendous amount of depth,” Hughes said. “Logan Davis started for us last year, and he’s morphed his body a little bit. Dustin Hernandez is a senior who started on the defensive line for us last season, but he’ll be a two-way guy for us this year. Grant Hoover is a guy that can play all three positions, and was offensive lineman of the year in our region last year…We’ve got a good group of young guys that have created a little nucleus that is going to be very crucial to our success.”
All of the focus on Monterey’s offense last year overshadowed a defense that gave up an average of 10.6 points per game in the regular season, including four games where they gave up eight points or less. That unit will be younger this season, as injuries have led to many players learning new positions.
“We are probably a little behind defensively right now, and we are trying to get a feel for some new pieces to the puzzle,” Hughes said. “We have some freshmen and sophomores that are going to play, and we have got about half a dozen guys that are looking at adding a role or learning a secondary position. So we are still trying to tinker with new personnel, which is part of being in fall camp.”
The biggest change in the upcoming season for Monterey is their step up to the 2A classification. With that comes a new region featuring York Institute, Wartburg, Oneida and Rockwood. Additionally, the Wildcats will take on a non-region slate of Stone Memorial, Cumberland County, Bledsoe County and their week one opponent: Cannon County.
“Our non-region schedule is really tough and we are excited about it,” Hughes said. “We are playing three teams that are at least one classification level above us, and another that went 10-0 in the regular season last year. We know week-to-week, we are in for it. We have talked about it all offseason how week-to-week, we understand there are no gimmes. We are going to have to show up and be really good every week.”
The season kicks off in Monterey on Friday, Aug. 20 at 7 P.M. when they host the Lions of Cannon County. The game will be livestreamed on the Upper Cumberland Reporter’s Facebook page.