Even with a strong senior class graduated, the Nocona Indian football team feels like they have the players in their program to challenge themselves more than they have the past few seasons.
Specifically, the Indians have bumped up the size of schools in their pre-district schedule more than they have in the past. The past two seasons, Coach Brad Keck said he liked to schedule some smaller schools to help build his teams confidence. It worked as Nocona went 9-1 in the pre-district the past two seasons, but they outscored their opponents 502-75.
“We feel like these next two years we are going to be a fairly talented team and wanted to bump that schedule up a little bit,” Keck said. “We are playing some teams in Boyd, Venus and Ponder who are all a bit bigger than Nocona is. That will be a challenge for us.”
Still, the toughest non-district game on the schedule will probably come from the only school that is smaller than Nocona, 2A Valley View, which is coming off of a 10-2 year and a second round playoff birth. They will play them for their homecoming game.
That will lead right into district play as the Indians will face a newcomer to the district and a traditional power, Gunter, on the road. They have made trips to the 3A state championship game the last two years, winning in 2016 and losing last year. That loss is the only one for Gunter in those two seasons.

For the rest of the story, pick up a copy of the weekend edition of the Bowie News.