Guyer Ready to Take on New District Slate

Guyer ready to take on ne distri t slate

by Steve Gamel

The Guyer football team is used to being placed in a tough district lineup every year. That won’t change next season, though there is the added incentive of exacting revenge on a few opponents of the past. Head coach John Walsh and company learned they would join a revamped District 5-6A lineup that includes the likes of Denton Braswell, Allen, Prosper, McKinney, McKinney Boyd, and Little Elm. The news was released during the University Interscholastic League’s biennial reclassification and realignment day on February 3.

The new district lineup is for the 2020-22 school years and is for all sports at Guyer – not just football.

There are several positives with this new lineup. For starters, it’s a chance to play fellow Denton ISD school, Braswell, for the first time. Braswell makes the jump from 5A after making the playoffs last year for the first time in program history. Guyer will also get its hands on Allen. The Wildcats have never beaten the Eagles, but already planned to play them in nondistrict had the two not ended up in the same district.

Another coup is that should the Wildcats make the playoffs, they will certainly be battled tested. This is important as Walsh lost 16 starters to graduation, including star running back Kaedric Cobbs and wide receiver Seth Meador. Eli Stowers returns at quarterback but won’t start the season as he’s still recovering from a knee injury in last year’s state title game loss to Austin Westlake. Walsh told the Denton Record-Chronicle that he is extremely excited about the team’s entire schedule. Not only will they face Braswell, but the Wildcats will also face longtime rival Ryan in Week 2. “We’re excited to be back playing someone from Denton ISD and maybe creating a rivalry,” Walsh said of Braswell to the DRC. “Cody [Moore] has done a great job out there. The good news is we are going to play in four of the nicest stadiums in the state. They’re all good

venues, including ours.” Walsh always feels his teams are prepared for tough sledding, and this year won’t be any different. Since 2010, Guyer has competed in four titles games while winning two. They’ve flip-flopped classes regularly during that stretch, and Walsh has made it a point to schedule the best teams possible in nondistrict. Along with Ryan, this year’s nondistrict schedule includes Hebron, Mansfield Lake Ridge, and Atascocita. “We’re ex ited to e a playin someone from Denton ISD and may e reatin a rivalry...”