In Sirl Wright’s first season at Strong, the Bulldogs took their lumps, winning just one game.
But during his first offseason, Wright was able to get valuable time with his players during his summer program.
“I implemented my summer program, and we had a larger turnout of kids that participated during the summer than last summer,” Wright said. “I base everything off of being a pure athlete. I try to make them bigger, stronger, faster. I understand that being at a small school like Strong compared to El Dorado, we pretty much have to be a caravan of athletes. We go from sport to sport, and you can’t just really specialize on one particular sport, otherwise the other sports are pretty much going to die out.”
Low numbers have also been an issue for the program.
“We just started school, and some of the kids that I was expecting to come back that either played last year or participated in the spring, either some have moved or elected not to play,” Wright said. “I was guesstimating about 22 starting out, but we’re hovering around 18 right now. I think with these new age of kids, the central air and video games and social media and all those types of things keep kids indoors a lot, so I think with small schools, you have to roll with the punches over the bigger schools unless you’ve got a program like Junction (City), where it’s easy to always to get kids out, but I think we’re moving in the right direction.”
The Bulldogs played a brutal non-conference schedule last year with four of their five games coming against schools in higher classifications.
This year’s schedule will see the Bulldogs do plenty of traveling with only three home games on the docket.
Strong will have a bye in Week 0 before starting the season with four straight games on the road against Hamburg, Lake Village and Rison in non-conference play before taking on Union County rival Junction City in their 8-2A opener.
“We’re starting out with Hamburg, which is a 4A opponent,” Wright said. “Last year, I think they finished ranked (No.) 15 in 4A, so they’re going to be a formidable opponent for any school. We’re going to have to grow up fast and try to manage that larger division opponent. Last year, I think we had one of the toughest schedules in the state. We had three conference teams finish the year out in the top 10. Rison finished fourth as far as rankings, and Hamburg finished 15. Lake Village was a pretty good matchup for us. I think we can match up with them, it’s just they had a little more time to jell than we did. I feel that Hamburg is going to be a tough matchup. Lake Village, I feel we’re closer to them, and Rison is definitely going to be a battle.”
After hosting Fordyce and Hampton, the Bulldogs embark on a three-game road swing against Johnson County Westside, Beekman Charter (La.) and Parkers Chapel before returning home to cap the regular season against Bearden.
“It’s going to be a traveling game (Johnson County Westside),” Wright said. “We’ve got to get the kids’ mindset on that one because it’s pretty much going to be an all day affair because you have to travel across the state. By playing them last year, our kids will be more motivated to play them because last year, they didn’t know who they were and they were kind of nervous, but then as they started playing, they saw they could compete, and their confidence grew.
“I think Beekman is more at our level. They’re a 2A school in Louisiana. I’m trying to adapt the schedule to play teams more at our level versus playing 4A schools or 3A schools or anybody that’s pretty much outmatching us before we get on the field.”
The Bulldogs went winless in the 8-2A last year, getting shut out three times in the process, and Wright said the league will be difficult to navigate through again in 2019.
“I truly believe that it’s pretty much the toughest division in 2A,” Wright said. “Just comparing from last year, we had three teams out of the six finish in the top 10 in the state. Junction has been winning state title after state title or at least in the finals in the last four, five years. Hampton has been on a roll ever since Monta’ Thomas came through. They’ve been up and rolling. I remember playing Fordyce at bigger schools. They took their lumps as freshmen, but they’ve all grown up, and they gave Junction a run for their money last year.
“Bearden always has had a history of great athletes and playing great football. Parkers Chapel has been more so of an aerial attack with an athletic quarterback that scrambles. I think all five of those teams will be a tough matchup, but I think we’re up for the challenge.”
As far as expectations are concerned, Wright is simply looking for improvement from last year.
“Just to grow and be better than last year,” Wright said. “We’re young. We lost a lot of senior leadership. We’ve got to retool and fill a lot of voids. We lost three, four seniors on the line offensively. Defensively, all of our backfield is gone. LeAndrew Greer and X-Zavier McHenry were the meat and potatoes of our teams as far as carrying the ball, so with them being gone and the line, we’ve got to just retool and get some kids that may not have as much as those other ones in there and strive to do better each game, each minute in every quarter that we play in.”