Bulldawg players honored at annual football banquet
Fri, 2016-01-08 05:00
News Staff
By TJ MAXWELL
The 2015 Copperas Cove Bulldawgs football team had its share of ups and downs this season but still managed to earn three wins in District 12-6A play to earn their 12th-consecutive trip to the postseason and 17th trip in the last 18 years.
“We’ve had a good year,” said head coach and athletic director Jack Welch. “We made the playoffs for the 12th-consecutive year. We’ve had some battles that, I think, revealed character that very few teams get to go through. I appreciate this group of young men. It’s been fun being around them.”
Senior Shamad Lomax, who committed to play football for New Mexico State University over the summer, was voted as the Special Teams MVP and Defensive MVP for his efforts as a kick returner and a defensive back.
The three-year varsity starter wracked up 117 tackles, 18 pass breakups, four interceptions and one blocked field goal as a defender and averaged 32.21 per return as a kick returner. Lomax, along with junior Kylan Herrera had 780 combined yards on returns.
“Shamad and Kylan ended the season with a combined 780 yards returning with a starting field position of the 36-yard line,” said assistant coach Ryan Youngblood. “Together they averaged 32.1 yards per return.”
The offense was lead by senior running back Antonio Lealiiee, who was voted Offensive MVP and Offensive Back of the Year during the annual banquet.
Lealiiee was amongst the tops in the state in several categories as a runner.
“There are 245 teams of 6A football in Texas,” said associate head coach and offensive coordinator Tracy Welch. “We had the second-longest run in 6A by Lealiiee. We had the No. 4 average rusher in 6A with 180.4 yards per game (Lealiiee) and we had the No. 5 rusher with 1,804 yards (Lealiiee).”
Lealiiee was also the No. 1 rusher in District 12-6A. He averaged 8.23 yards per game and notched 1,522 yards in the six games of district alone.
“As an offense, we finished as the No. 23 total offense in 6A with right at 400 yards per ball game,” said Tracy Welch. “We had the No. 9 rushing offense in 6A with 287 yards per game. We finished the year as the 39th leading scoring team in all of 6A football.”
Joining Lealiiee with offensive awards were:
Junior Kendall Small was voted as the Wide Receiver of the Year.
The Offensive Line Award was split between seniors Josh Klenclo and Baylor-commit J.P. Urquidez. Klenclo also received the Most Improved Offensive Player Award.
Junior quarterback Caine Garner and junior running back Kylan Herrera split the Offensive Newcomers of the Year Award.
The Offensive Dawg Bite Award went to senior Joed Hernandez.
Last, but not least, sophomore Jalen Smith was given the Offensive Scout Award.
Despite having of their least-productive seasons on the defensive side of the ball, the Dawgs did have some players rise to the top, highlighted by Lomax’s performance. The defense continued to improve throughout the season and slashed about a third off of their opponent’s total yardage by the end of the year.
“Defensively, this was kind of a rough year,” said defensive coordinator Reb Brock. “I’ve been here 17 years and this was the roughest year since I’ve been here. Sometimes things happen. We had some big shoes to fill because we lost a lot of people in the front seven. We had six seniors graduate that started on our defensive front and five of those were two- or three-year starters. All but one of them are playing football at the collegiate level. That’s not easy to replace.
“After the first four weeks we were giving up over 600 yards per game and that’s pretty rough. They could have easily tossed the towel in but they didn’t. Coming out of district play, we had shaved 200 yards off per game. That’s still too much but going from 600 to 400 shows how hard those guys worked to get better.”
Joining Lomax with honors on the defensive side of the ball were:
Sack specialist Rylan Hunter was given the Superintendent’s Award for his work on the field, in the class and in the community. The junior finished the season with 20.5 tackles (7.5 for losses) and had a team-high four sacks for 31 yards.
The Defensive Back of the Year Award went to Jordan Speight, who was brought up to the varsity mid-way through the season.
Linebacker of the Year went to junior Tyson Curry. He led the team in tackles with 64.5.
The Defensive Line Award was given to senior Martinez Rogers. Rogers also contributed on special teams.
Sophomores Zach Moody and James Vernardos were voted as the Defensive Newcomers of the Year.
Senior Sean Bedford was voted as the Most Improved Defensive Player.
Senior D’Mani Paepaelalo was voted as the Defensive Dawg Bite Award winner.
The Defensive Scout Team Award was given to sophomore Juan Jimenez.
Senior Bradley Lawson was recognized for his efforts on both sides of the ball. He was voted as the Iron Man after taking on a role as safety in addition to his starting receiver role.
“The thing about this group I was most proud of was we had a lot of young guys play,” said Brock. “We had guys without varsity experience step up an become competitive in one of the toughest districts in 6A football and one of the toughest preseason schedules and they had to be ready right off the bat. That speaks a lot for those kids.”
The Dawgs lose 31 seniors to graduation.
“Throughout the years, seeing young men succeed and go on to college to get degrees, have a family and make things of themselves is what makes a coach proud,” said Jack Welch. “We’ve been very blessed over the years.”
“Seniors,” concluded Jack Welch. “I really appreciate you guys. I appreciate what you stand for. I appreciate how you work and I appreciate how you kept your heads up, battled and made the playoffs. That was a tremendous feat and a tremendous thing to overcome the way we started the season. You did a great job, you have a lot to be proud of and I love each and every one of you.”