By Jeff Steers
MHSSS Special Writer
With only two wins in the last four years, Bridgeport is looking to improve on those numbers in 2024.
Second-year coach Ryan Love believes the Bearcats may be turning the corner as a football team.
“We have about 40 in the (high school) football program which is better numbers compared to other years,” Love said during media days. “We had much better leadership this summer.”
Bridgeport plays in the Tri-Valley Conference Red Division with its last contested win being in 2019.
“We have improved this summer … and hopefully learned that when you don’t do summer workouts, you are three months behind everyone else,” Love said. “It takes a while to learn a new system and we are only 14 months into it.”
The Bearcats expect to run a gun-wing offense trying to gets playmakers into good positions.
Some of the key players include all-league defensive back and wide receiver Germontae Bucker, offensive and defensive lineman Antwiane Sanders, and receiver and cornerback Jakobe Taylor.
Buckner earned Tri-Valley Conference honors for his defensive work in 2023 for the Bearcats.
“We learned to go hard in practice so you can go hard in the games,” Buckner said.
Sanders said the biggest thing he learned in 2023 is to “give it all you got and do your assignment.”
“We need to come together as a team to be successful,” Sanders said.
Other players expected to make major impacts are all-league defensive end Chris Collins and all-league lineman Elijah Bowes.
Lamarion Moore expects to be a hybrid back and linebacker for the Bearcats in 2024.
Love said the 15 summer practices and work in the weight room will pay off for Bridgeport.
“We accomplished some baseline stuff during the summer,” Love said. “Now we can work on plays and formations.”
Bridgeport kicks off the season with a non-conference game against Gwinn, plays TVC games week two and fourth through eight, and battles Madison and Yale in non-conference contests.
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