Boerne Champion is pretty much in the same position as they were in last year as they get ready to start the 2024 football season.
Before the start of the 2023 season, the Chargers were picked to finish sixth in their district and out of the playoffs, but jumped ahead of several of the teams and ended up third.
Champion head coach Blane Ellis said he believes the Chargers can do the same thing in 2024. They are picked to finish fifth by Texas Football magazine and out of the mix, but Ellis said they embrace the challenge and hope to prove people wrong – again.
“We believe in our guys and believe in what we do,” he said. “The world is going to tell them that they’re young and it should be a rebuilding year but we’re going to fight that because we believe that we should be in the playoffs and should be making a good run.”
The Chargers only return four starters on both sides of the ball and Ellis said there is strong competition for starting jobs. He wants to play a lot of guys early and might not name some fulltime starters until district begins on Sept. 20.
“We’ll take it all the way through the first game and into some non-district games,” Ellis said. “As young as we are, and as competitive as we are at certain spots, I like the idea of playing a lot of guys early so that we can figure out who’s who.”
A look at the district
Champion is mixed in with Smithson Valley, Pieper, New Braunfels, Wagner, Seguin, Victoria East and MacArthur in District 13-5A DI.
The Chargers are picked fifth and have a couple of new schools – New Braunfels and Pieper – thrown into the district to replace Buda Hays and Kyle Lehman. They also swapped out NB Canyon with Victoria East.
“New Braunfels is traditionally a good program; they have similar kids to what we have and are similar to NB Canyon. Victoria East will be hard nose and they’re going to put a good product on the field,” Ellis said. “Our district will be similar as far as talent level. We knew last year would be a dogfight to get in and we knew the 2 through 4 spots would come down to the wire and it did.
“I believe there is going to be a really good fifth-place team that is going to stay at home,” the coach added.
A look at the team
One of the starting jobs that is up for grabs is at the quarterback spot after threeyear starter Jordan Balllin graduated.
Garland Whitehead, Julian Navarrete and Conner Macafee are battling it out for the starting job.
Other players to watch as listed by Texas Football magazine are Taylor Castillo, Brady Lampkin, Walker Affeldt, Josh Surber, Navillus Hannah, Nathan Bell, Brogan Dempsey, Owen Thornton, Brady Smith, Maddox Wildey and Hudson Simmons.
Before the start of their spring game last May, there were 180 players in the program, but that didn’t include those seniors graduating nor incoming freshman.
Now with the freshman class enrolled, Ellis said there are close to 300 athletes in the program and added that there are enough helmets and equipment to go around for anyone who wants to suit up. “We’ll have enough, we’ll make it work,” he said. “We have good numbers and that’s a good problem to have.”
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