Wildcats lose key defensive starter for year
By JIMMY GALVAN Managing Editor

KIRBYVILLE HEAD FOOTBALL COACH JACK ALVAREZ looks over his varsity squad during photo day in Kirbyville.The Wildcats have been chosen by Dave Campbell's Texas Football as the team to beat in District 21-3A this year. Last year, the Wildcats advanced to the Class 3A playoffs, surprising everyone with a strong finish. Newsboy photo/Jimmy Galvan

Even with the loss of a key defensive starter, Kirbyville Head Football Coach Jack Alvarez said he was pleased with the workouts during the two-a-days workouts.

"I couldn't ask anymore from my kids - we haven't had anyone miss practice and everyone had great attitudes," Alvarez said. "We had a couple of injuries, but I know that just happens."

Aaron Walters, the starting nose guard for the Wildcats, was probably lost for the season with a broken ankle. Walters broke his right ankle on the last play of an inter-squad scrimmage Friday, Aug. 10 and is scheduled to undergo surgery on the ankle this week

"That will be a big blow to us defensively," Alvarez said.

Alvarez said his team is "healthy, other than the Walters' injury" and said his team is "ready to hit somebody other than us."

Kirbyville squared off with Newton Saturday, Aug. 18 in a scrimmage and Alvarez believed the contest was a good measuring stick for Kirbyville.

"Newton is one of the top two or three teams in the state in Class 2A and they play everybody," Alvarez said. "It was a good test for us.

"They are just a bit further ahead than we are right now," Alvarez said. "They were much more physical than we were."

Alvarez said he looked for his offensive line to "jell a bit" against Newton.

"We are still in a growing process in our offensive and defensive lines," Alvarez said. "I don't want to make excuses but we are still growing daily. We still have lot of questions that still need to be answered and some of them were answered the other night."

Newton outscored Kirbyville 2-1 in the game portion of the scrimmage.

"I wanted to see our defense run to the ball and not give up any big plays but we gave up two big ones to Newton," Alvarez said. "They scored twice and we stopped them once."

Newton scored the first time they touched the ball in the scrimmage. Kirbyville responded by driving down to the Newton 20 but a fumbled snap ended the scoring threat.

"It put us in a bad situation and we couldn't get out of it," Alvarez said.

Even with the first scrimmage under their belts, Alvarez said the Wildcats are not where they need to be at this point of the season.

"We are ahead in the skilled positions than we have ever been before and that's because we have our quarterback and backs back this year," Alvarez said. "We took a blow on our offensive line where we are having to replace two tackles and a guard."

Ryan Jones and Dre Jackson are the two returnees on the offensive line for the Wildcats.

"Our front is going to be a little bit inexperienced and Diboll and Newton should tell us where we are at and where everybody needs to be," Alvarez said. "We also need to come out of our scrimmages healthy. When you play Newton and Diboll, you are talking about some high intensity ball clubs. You never know what will happen when you scrimmage teams like that."

When the pre-season started, the Wildcats were the choice from Dave Campbell's Texas Football as the team to beat in District 21-3A. That hype was something that placed the Wildcats on notice this coming season.

And how have the Wildcats responded to that early prediction of greatness for this season?

"That was one man's opinion and you go to every town in this district and somebody is going to have a different opinion," Alvarez said. "This district will be decided every Friday night and I'm not silly enough to think Dave Campbell can just make us the district champion.

"You have to go out every week and fight," Alvarez said. "We had state champions out of this district if basketball and baseball but I think in football we go out and beat each other too much to play in the playoffs."

This week, Kirbyville travels to Diboll for their second scrimmage.

"We need to see more consistency in our offensive line," Alvarez said. "Defensively, I would like to see us go out and be more physical and emotional. Right now, it seems that we are in such a learning mode that I don't know how much emotion we are playing with right now.

"We need to see more emotion and more fire even though it's not a real game," Alvarez said. "You want to see your kids play that way and I haven't see that in them as of yet."