By Mike Pankonien

Staff Writer

With new district lines comes a new football season, and with a new football season comes new competitors. After going up against teams like Hebron, Marcus, Flower Mound, and Lewisville, Coppell has now been placed in District 7 5-A along with Justin Northwest, Denton Guyer, Keller, Keller Central, Keller Fossil Ridge, Saginaw, and Southlake Carroll.
“I don’t think this district will be as tough as last year’s district,” junior Oni Omoile said. “Most of us aren’t worried about teams like Keller. We’ll still need to be sharp for teams like Southlake of course.”

Denton Guyer – A new addition to class 5A football this year, Denton Guyer has proven itself well in 4A. Going 11-1 and making it to the third round of the 4A championships in the 2009 season. Guyer defeated most of their opposing teams by a wide margin, scoring an average of 42 points per game and only giving up an average of 19 points per game. Also, Denton Guyer has already played Saginaw in the 09-10 season and won 35-8.

“We’ll have to watch out for teams like Guyer and Southlake Carroll,” Coppell Coach McBride said. “Still got to earn wins.”

Saginaw – Another new addition to 5A football this year, Saginaw has a less impressive record, going 5-7 in 4A last year and placing fourth in it’s district. The team did make history last year as they entered playoffs for the first time ever. The Saginaw game this year will be at Coppell on September 24th.

Keller – While both Central and Fossil Ridge high schools failed to achieve a winning season, Keller high school not only won a majority of it’s games, ending it’s season 6-4, but made it to the first round of playoffs as well. The good news is that while they did make it to the first round of playoffs, Keller lost too Coppell in that round, 33-13.

Justin Northwest – While it may look bad that Northwest came out 0-10 in the 2009 season, upon a second glance such a record shouldn’t be taken at face value. Northwest went up against Euless, Burleson and Colleyville Heritage, all teams who went into playoffs. Also Northwest on average lost its games by 10 points, and while that is a gap that’ll need to be eliminated, it is a possible fix. Northwest also went up against all three Keller schools, so the team will have some advantage in being familiar with all three teams in recent play.

Southlake Carroll – The classic Coppell rivalry against Southlake Carroll will continued this year, as the Dragons are once again in the district with the Cowboys. Southlake Carroll’s 2009 season was filled with tough teams and time and time again the Dragons pulled through. Despite many spectators expecting Coppell to beat the Dragons for a second time last season, Southlake Carroll rose above the pressure and handed defeat to Coppell, 24-6.

Pulling in an average 42 points a game and only giving up 20, this team will definitely be a top team to beat this year. Coppell players are eager to get back in the fight this year however.

“I think playing Southlake gives us a good chance to be the best again,” said Junior Zach Getson. “Southlake is obviously one of the best teams in town, so beating them sends a message.”