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Close calls curtail Wildcats' 2011 season
BY Matt Welch, mwelch@acnpapers.com
For the first time since 2006, the Plano Senior football team's season concluded in Week 10.
A sight unseen under the guise of head coach Jaydon McCullough, the Wildcats' first playoff absence in five years capped a 4-6 season and a 1-6 District 8-5A run riddled with close calls and near-misses.
"I don't feel good about these results and the kids feel the same way," McCullough said. "It's just that through years of experience and coaching here, things didn't turn out how I anticipated and it was just circumstances, be it a fumble here or not making a play here or there."
Wins over Garland Lakeview Centennial, Irving MacArthur and Mansfield Legacy started a promising 2011 campaign, but the brunt of district play smacked the Wildcats across the jaw in the form of a 44-7 loss to Allen.
The Wildcats' remaining district schedule proved more competitive, but the outcomes remained the same as Plano went six weeks without tasting victory.
"The wear and tear of this district made for some really close games," McCullough said, "but in the end, we just didn't get the job done. It's not for a lack of effort, because I believe this team worked as hard as any I've coached.
"We just came up a bit short."
Three games in particular typified this nature, with fourth-quarter leads against Flower Mound, Flower Mound Marcus and Plano East falling by the wayside.
In the case of the Jaguars, it was a one-handed catch by Beau LaFave that capitalized on botched Wildcat coverage for a 68-yard touchdown and an ensuing 2-point conversion that downed Plano, 42-35. One week later, the Wildcats led then-unbeaten Marcus for the bulk of the contest. But Marcus ripped off a 99-yard drive to score the go-ahead touchdown with 24 seconds left in a 28-24 victory. The late-game demons officially put the kibosh on any hope of a Wildcat playoff berth against Plano East as Plano surrendered a 17-0 halftime in a 28-24 loss.
The psychological toll weighed on the team.
Circumstances ran their course though, with a youthful Wildcat defense boasting noted experience for the likes of freshman Mitchell Hansen and Sam Tecklenburg, plus sophomores Austin Connell and David Griffith to juxtapose with seniors Xavier Harbert, Dwayne Hicks and Sam Morell.
The growing pains showed along the way, with Plano surrendering 30.1 points per district contest -- the highest mark since the program's 0-10 campaign in 2003.
"Over the course of the year, we had to play some young kids," McCullough said, "which is good for the future, but they're still freshmen and sophomores and this is a game where you win with juniors and seniors. But we feel like on talent, they gave us the best chance to win."
Offensively, junior Richard Lagow kept Plano's standard balanced passing attack chugging along with seniors Hunter Gore (34 catches, 432 yards), Morell (23, 393) and L.J. Ausama (23, 283) emerging as the chief benefactors. The running back-by-committee approach struggled after injuries curtailed the senior campaign for Kevin Merrill during 8-5A play. The rusher accrued just over half of his 505 rushing yards during non-district.
"It was tough, just knowing how bad [Merrill] wanted to play," McCullough said. "He's such a great kid and you know he'll give it everything he's got, but he just was never 100 percent.
"Still, he exemplifies what this program is about: he's hard-working, acts right and is classy."
In Merrill's place rose senior Rakeem Crawford, who amiably filled the void with 685 rushing yards and 11 touchdowns.
Plano's lone district win was a 27-14 triumph over last-place Lewisville.
As such, McCullough said the offseason is one for re-examining goals and expectations to right the ship.
"We're doing the same thing we did back in 2003," he said. "We're sitting down and making a list of concerns. We're going to make a list of what we can do better and get things out in the open, and do what we can to improve this program."
There's also the process of bidding farewell to another class of seniors; one that occupied the majority of Plano's roster with just 20 players slated to return.
"I've been doing this for 25 years now, so (saying goodbye to the seniors) is still very difficult," McCullough said. "It's an old cliché that coaches spend more time with their players than they do their families, so it's very difficult. But at the same time, it helps that you know they're starting another chapter and that's exciting."
Lagow returns under center in 2012, but with a new bevy of targets as Hansen and junior Anthony Antwine will be the only returning receivers to log a catch from the quarterback.
Defensively, Plano is tasked with banking on the experience garnered by its underclassmen to pay dividends.
And then there's the matter of restoring any luster lost from this season.
"Disappointed? Yes. Discouraged? No," McCullough said. "We realize we have a lot of work to do, but we know we can do it ... We've got to get these kids prepared to do what they can to carry on the Plano tradition, which is doing things the right way, working extremely hard and for a common purpose, consistently winning at a high level and winning in the fourth quarter.
"That's what we're known for. That's why they call us the Cardiac Cats and we've got to get that back."
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