West Texas Huddle: Central football with a clean slate under new coach Mark Smith

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The Standard-Times will be previewing area high school football teams throughout July and August as part of the West Texas Huddle series. For previous stories in the series go to gosanangelo.com .

San Angelo Central Bobcats

District: 6-2A

2023 Record: 1-9, 0-5

Head coach: Mark Smith

Most recent district championship : 2017

State titles: 2 (1943, 1966)

Top returners

QB Christian English, WR Colton Hill, DB Mason Van Sickle, OL Chase Cole, OL Tu'uta Kalamafoni, LB Shawn Scott, LB Jaekob Jackson

What to know for 2023

After being hired in early February, new Central head football coach and athletic coordinator Mark Smith worked on finding new staffers to surround himself. He hired Keller's Wes Cope, who spent 11 seasons on the Indians coaching staff. Smith hired Cope's brother Destry Cope to be the new defensive coordinator, who spent the past few years on the coaching staff at Clear Falls High School in League City, Texas. English is a dual-threat quarterback that Smith expects to take another leap with a year of varsity experience under his belt. The defense has plenty of speed with players like Van Sickle, Scott and Jackson on the second level where the team hopes to improve the most.

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Coach Mark Smith on the 2024 season

"Anytime that you've got a team that has a ton of youth on it, it's a very willing and eager team. And when you combine that with a new coach, staff and a new way of doing things, you get a very hungry team that is eager to please. And we've got a team where even the veteran guys are very on board with complete trust between the player and the coaches. This ship is pointed in the right direction and our plane is headed down the runway, and it's about to take flight. We're just building that speed and that momentum as we're headed down the runway."

Paul Witwer covers high school sports and Angelo State University sports for The San Angelo Standard-Times. Reach him at sports@gosanangelo.com . Follow him on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, @Paul_Witwer .

This article originally appeared on San Angelo Standard-Times: West Texas Huddle: Central football with a clean slate under new coach Mark Smith