High School Football Previews: George Washington Carver & Montgomery Catholic

High School Football

by Lindsey Bonner

George Washington Carver

G.W. Carver Head Coach, Marcus Gardner, and the rest of the team are excited to get the 2023 season underway after coming off a successful season in 2022, as they won their region and earned a trip to the playoffs.

The Wolverines brings back several starters from last year’s team.

“We have four offensive lineman starters, two receivers that were pretty productive last year, maybe nine of eight defensive guys that played last year. A lot of them have played since ninth grade, so there’s a lot of guys coming back that could make an impact,” says Gardner.

According to Senior Wide Receiver, Laquenton Underwood, the team put in a lot of work throughout the winter and summer to stay ahead of the game.

“We’re just trying to get ahead of everybody, because while they aren’t working, we can get working. We’re just trying to get ahead of everybody. Just stay focused so we can get to the big path,” says Underwood.

Another key returner that the Wolverines bring back this year is senior linebacker Rodarien Wilkinson who mentions that a strength of this year’s team is going to be their communication.

“That is something that we would lack every other year, but this year we have a lot of communication because there are a lot of veterans and last year’s starters coming back, so we’re excited for that,” says Wilkinson.

Montgomery Catholic

The Montgomery Catholic Knights also coming off a successful campaign in 2022, where they had a perfect record in the regular season and made it all the way to the semi-finals.

The Knights have now for two consecutive seasons had a perfect record in the regular season and then made it to the semi-finals of the playoffs. And while Head Coach Kirk Johnson and the rest of the team are looking to break past the semi-finals this season, they are just taking things one game at a time.

“It’s a whole new season,  you just kind of approach it with your best foot forward and you try to navigate it our during the season and you take it one game at a time and you start figuring out who this team really is. You know, we might go into the season thinking we’re run game heavy, but then we might pass more. So, you never know, you just kind of take it one game at a time, and when the cards start unfolding, it’s our job as coaches to start putting ourselves in the best situation possible,” says Johnson.

While the Knights did lose a lot of talent to graduation, they do bring back several key pieces including senior quarterback, Caleb McCreary. A big thing for McCreary as he enters his senior season is to not look back at the past, only ahead to a state Championship.

“We never want to hold on to what we’ve done, we want to move forward and brush everything off and just win games at the end of the day,” says McCreary.

Another key piece that Catholic returns is senior offensive lineman, Ariyn

Gilbert who mentions that some of the key principles for this years team are focus and finishing.

“The past three years we have ended in heartbreak and that’s something that we don’t want to feel again. We’ve felt it three times and it’s in the back of our head, we’re not really focusing on it, we kind of want to let it go, but not forget it and not forget that feeling. We’ve been focusing on being able to finish in that last game in the fourth quarter and the last play of the game,” says Gilbert.

Montgomery Catholic kicks off the 2023 season August 25th on the road at McGill-Toolen.