Football coach helps save lives during Harvey

Hurricane Harvey affected everything in it’s path, and football was no exception. While the football team has been affected because of Hurricane Harvey,  Coach Shane Hallmark and many Bearkat players decided to take the opportunity to help others.

“If there’s been any positives, I think it’s brought the community together,” Hallmark said. “Maybe built some closeness that wasn’t there before. It’s wrecked some schedules, but we’ll survive, keep strong and move forward.”

Coach Hallmark himself recently made news for helping families during the hurricane.

“I put my boat out in the water and decided to help some families that needed help. I’m not real big on taking credit for things you should do anyway. That’s fine if that’s what happens (making news), but I always believe you should do things and not worry about if people are watching,” Hallmark said.

Many people helped out during this time, from Bearkat players to teachers and citizens. “His [speaking of his former science teachers] family was helping out people next door. That was great to see,” junior Andrew Hebert said.

Schedule Changes

One of the many things affected was the game schedules, which have been modified.

“Obviously our first game got cancelled. Our second game is also cancelled,” Hallmark said, “We’ll be back on schedule week starting September 15th, and we are playing Fort Bend Travis Sept. 22nd, which was originally our bye week.”

This means that football games will start back on schedule on the 15th. While the bright side is that there will still be nine scheduled games, these nine games come without a break, as there is no longer a bye week. It remains to be seen the effect this will have on the players and team.

New Players

The varsity team sports are mostly juniors and seniors, and while the Bearkats varsity team is mostly the same, Coach Hallmark said that there are some youth on the varsity team too.

“Our offensive line is very young. They are growing every day in getting better. We could end up starting four sophomores, which is always tough to do, especially in our league, but if they’ll mature and grow every day, we’ll have a shot to be there at the end,” Hallmark said

New Improvements

With every new season comes a sense of optimism and excitement for new improvements, and Coach Hallmark said he is feeling it too.

“Our defense is very experienced and very talented. I really expect big things out of them,” Hallmark said. “Our offense has a lot of experience on the outside as well.”

Big Expectations

When it came to his expectations for the season, Coach Hallmark made it very clear how he feels.

 “I think it’s gonna be a great year. Football is a fickle sport. You gotta be lucky and pray injuries don’t happen, but if we stay healthy I think we can achieve a lot. Our goal is to get into the playoffs and make a deep run and that’s what I expect.”