By John Raffel
Correspondent
LAWTON — Lawton football coach AJ High was in his sixth year of coach and second as head coach. It was his first full season. The team was 8-3 overall and 4-1 in the league.
“We always expect to compete and make a run in the playoffs,” High said. “We did not meet that expectation this season, but overall, it was a good season. After losing 20 seniors from last year’s team, many people thought this may be a rebuilding year, but it was not. Many players that had not played much in the past worked their butts off in the off season and made the most of their opportunities.
“Despite dealing with numerous injuries, we were very competitive while playing a tough schedule, one of the toughest in school history, 6 out of our 9 opponents were playoff teams and 3 of those teams won District Titles in D5, D6, and D7. We beat United (Won District Title D5) and Constantine (Won District Title D6) for the first time in school history.”
Lawton had had numerous injuries this season “that made things challenging, however many of our younger players stepped up and played well.”
-Earning 1st Team All SAC Valley were Mason Mayne, Cole Burk, Austin Garcia, Hayden Merriman, and Greyson Burrous. Adrian Mata, Tim Willoughby, and Owen Matthies received All SAC Valley Honorable Mention.
“All of our 10 seniors were contributors to our team, and we will miss them, but Mason Mayne and Cole Burk will be very difficult to replace as they have been dominant throughout their high school careers,” High said. “We had 15 Juniors and 4 Sophomores that played significant minutes on the varsity this year and a JV team that had a 7-1-1 record. As long as these players put in the work in the off-season like the players that have come before them, we feel the future is bright.”
