West Plains football enters upcoming season with high expectations

AMARILLO, Texas (KAMR/KCIT) — The West Plains High School football team looks to continue their success after a dominate 12-2 season, and advancing four rounds deep into the playoffs.

KAMR Local 4 News Reporter Mya Clark spoke with key returning pieces for the Wolves Brody Tupin, Brody Bobo, Jaedrian Harrison, seniors at West Plains, regarding their expectations on the 2024-2025 season.

“I really think now we’ve lost a lot of guys. We have a lot of young guys coming in, but I feel like nothing’s really changed. We have a lot of lot of guys that have stepped up, said Bobo. I think our goal, just as the season, is just build on what’s what we accomplished last year and what we’ve done as a whole, as a program, and just continue to be as great as we have and just kind of build on that and exceed what we did last year, perfect.”

West Plains was recently established in the Fall of 2022, and this senior class has been there every step of the way and Tupin hopes to leave the young Wolves with a leadership mentality.

“I think as being a leader and knowing my way around the team as I’ve been on it for three years, I think that for me as a leader, I just need to kind of push them in the right direction, said Tupin. After I leave this year, they’ll be having that kind of leadership mentality that I want to pass down them. I just think I have to guide them through this first year of them being on varsity as we do have a lot of young players.”

Head Coach Adam Cummings also spoke with Mya about the upcoming season and the what to expect with camps only two weeks away.

“Yeah, I think we’re kind of in a state of limbo, in a little bit of a way, because we’ve got so many new faces that are going to be on the varsity scene. You know, looking at last year and how many kids we graduated, you know, it was a great senior class for us. Did a lot of good things as far as laying that foundation. But you look at the kids we’ve got coming up. You know, our JV was undefeated last year, and there’s a lot of high expectations for those young kids that are stepping up on varsity. As far as what we expect is, we expect to not really be a rebuilding year, more of a reloaded load type of a year. And so the expectations are high, perfect.”

Tupin said teams in the area respect West Plains more after their recent success and now view them as a worthy opponent.

“Being the new team, I think it helps us, because teams now know that we are the here and that we are a team to look out for, said Harrison. I think that’ll put a target on our back, and make us get better, because we’ll know that those teams are looking out for us, and that’ll help us try harder each game, every game, until we eventually make it to the last one.”

Notable players that graduated from last years team include running back Jordi Hernendez, lineman Dawson Hall, wide receiver Kyron Wooten, and linebacker King Tallant. The Wolves also have key players returning such as star quarterback Reid Macon, defensive back Boston Ladd, linebacker Tryston Hernandez and running back Slade Russell.

Returning players are equipped with playoff experience Bobo explained how having that experience helps them this season.

“I think, you know, just having that we went to the fourth round. I think, think having that experience of playing really good teams, really storied teams that have, you know, second year schools really, really don’t get to that point in playing teams that have been there before and had this experience and gone on really far. I think that kind of made us feel like we can be there consistently, too.”

The Wolves will begin their upcoming season on Aug. 30 against the Seminole High School Indians.

For the latest Amarillo news and regional updates, check with MyHighPlains.com and tune in to KAMR Local 4 News at 5:00, 6:00, and 10:00 p.m. and Fox 14 News at 9:00 p.m. CST.