High school football season kicks off this week

All four county 11-man varsity football teams kick off their 2023 seasons this week amidst the scorching summer sun and brutal August heat.

All four teams – Boerne Champion, Boerne High, Geneva School of Boerne and Comfort – are all on the road, and all four all far from home.

The Chargers are in Laredo Thursday, while on Friday the Greyhounds are in Corpus Christi, Geneva drives to Katy and Comfort visits Johnson City.

Three of the four squads have new head coaches.

For results of the games, be sure to look in this weekend’s Boerne Star.

Boerne Champion

Champion will make the drive to the border Thursday night and take on Laredo United South at the Student Activity Center Complex, 7 p.m.

Last year’s game between the Chargers and Panthers was close and the Chargers prevailed at BISD Stadium, 27-22, behind 375 yards from scrimmage.

Thursday’s contest is only one of three for Champion before beginning district play Sept. 14.

Champion went 2-1 in non-district to account for half of their wins during the season after they went 4-6 in 2022.

Laredo United South went 3-7 last year and was 2-3 in district to finish fifth.

Chargers coach Blane Ellis said the Laredo schools play a tough brand of football and added that he and the team are looking forward to the matchup. Ellis noted that it’s important to have a strong showing in non-district this year to get confidence going into league play.

“We got to win games early and make sure that we have success and win some of those in non-district,” he said. “We have a lot of experience coming back but we need to get more experience winning, so that’s going to be huge for us in non-district.”

Neither team made the playoffs last year, the first time in eight seasons for the Chargers, while the Panthers had recorded three straight winning seasons before going 3-7 last year.

Champion had its only scrimmage of the year last Thursday when they hosted Churchill.

Boerne High

The Greyhounds travel to Flour Bluff Friday to take on the 5A-DII Hornets in Corpus Christi, 7 p.m.

BHS won 15 games during its historic 2022 season on its way to the state title game, but Flour Bluff gave them one of their tougher games.

The Hounds were winning that contest, 35-17, with less than five minutes left but the Hornets made it interesting by scoring the final two TDs of the game before Boerne prevailed 35-32.

BHS coach Che Hendrix said games like that, and their two scrimmages against Kerrville Tivy and Liberty Hill, help them prepare for district and playoffs.

The coach noted in particular that their scrimmage against Liberty Hill is always a good test for them.

“That’s been a great scrimmage for us, I called their coach and said, ‘hey we need to get you guys on the schedule whether it’s a game or a scrimmage or whatever,’” he said. “So we scrimmaged them the last three years because of that and it was what we wanted, to have a meter of where we were compared to that.”

Boerne went 15-1 last year and played 16 games, while Flour Bluff was 10-4 and went four rounds deep before getting knocked out by Liberty Hill in a wild one, 63-43.

Both teams won their respective district titles and are both looking to start the year at 1-0.

Geneva School of Boerne

The Eagles were at home for scrimmages against Hyde Park and Harper and will now hit the road for a long drive to begin their non-district schedule Friday.

Geneva will drive to Katy to take on the Harmony School of Innovation Wildcats to kick off the Grant Gaston era with a 6 p.m. game.

Gaston is Geneva’s third head coach in three seasons and inherits a team that went two rounds deep in the playoffs.

The Eagles did graduate 17 players from last year’s team and Gaston admits they’re young but said things are coming along as the team adjusts to the changes he’s making.

“Our players are buying into our culture and philosophy: A-B-C or Always Be Competing and are enjoying the camaraderie and Biblical discipleship that we’ve been developing,” he said. “We’re a very young team, but we’re going to compete fiercely.”

Last year’s Geneva team went 6-6 overall and 2-1 in district. The Eagles finished second in district and won its season opener last year to Austin St. Michael’s, 27-20, but switched opening-day opponents this year to play the Harmony school this Friday.

Comfort High

Comfort is at Johnson City to open the 2023 season with a new coach but one who is familiar with the program.

Long-time assistant coach Jay Rieken takes over at Comfort.

Rieken is beginning his 17th season with the Bobcats and was hired to take over the program after serving under six different head coaches.

Comfort dropped last year’s season opener to Johnson City, 30-21, as the Eagles gained 396 yards – 278 on the ground – and the Cats tallied 322 yards – 237 on the ground.

Rieken said his focus this year will be on the running game and wants to be a run-heavy team so Friday’s game may be over quick if both focus on the run like they did last year.

The Cats were penalized 11 times for 125 yards in the game and fell behind 30-14 before scoring on an interception return late in the game to cut into the lead but could get no closer.

The 2A DI Eagles went 7-4 last year and lost in the first round of the playoffs just like Comfort, which went 3-8 overall. The 3A-DII Bobcats lost to Taft, 38-14, while Johnson City fell to Thorndale, 41-30.