GRIDIRON GLANCE ‘24: Sidney Eagles

August 17, 2024 at 9:11 am Derrick Stuckly

SIDNEY – Coming off their first playoff berth since 2018 with a runner-up finish in district, the Sidney Eagles earned a preseason No. 7 ranking in Class A Division II by Dave Campbell’s Texas Football.

Sidney won’t be returning all six starters on each side of the ball from last year’s 7-4 squad as previously expected, but James Rucker, who has taken the reigns of the program while also serving as superintendent, and the Eagles still have high expectations for 2024.

“We’re going to be a lot younger,” Rucker said. “There are four kids that were going to come back that aren’t here or either are here and chose not to play. We have a nucleus back that’s young, but they’re hungry. The practices we’ve had have been pretty good, they’re working hard. They listen, they’re a little bit more disciplined than they’ve been, but the kids enjoy that.”

Players to watch for the Eagles include Lehman Lindeque – who passed for 389 yards, rushed for 289 yards, tallied 288 receiving yards and accounted for 15 touchdowns last year – Jaylon Salinas – who finished with 224 receiving yards and 3 touchdowns in 2023 – Rees Miller, JD Pounds and Jerry McDaniel.

“Lehman will be a tailback, or he may play fullback, quarterback or spread back,” Rucker said. “He’s one that will have the ball in his hands a lot. Jaylon is a smart kid that has played quarterback for us and will probably be on the line this year, but defensively is where he can really make a difference. Rees did a fantastic job last year and out here at practice he’s really getting after it. Two freshmen we have coming in, JD and Jerry, they might surprise some people. But we’re probably going to be built around Lehman and Jaylon and their experience.”

Rucker stated the experience of the roster was the greatest strength for Sidney, while the lack of size will need to be overcome.

“Strengths are the three seniors we have coming back,” Rucker said. “Those boys have played and started basically since they were freshmen. Three seniors may not seem like a lot to people, but that’s half an offense and half a defense right there. Everybody else, other than our two freshmen, played some last year. Everyone else has at least one year at this level.”

Rucker added, “What may hurt us is our size. Our biggest kid is probably about 175 pounds, but that’s fine. We feel like we can spread teams out, we’re in shape, and the longer the game goes, we’ll outlast you.”

Prior to the league slate, Sidney will test its mettle against May, Eden, Stephenville Faith, Bluff Dale, Cherokee and Lometa.

“Every week we want to build a little bit offensively and defensively,” Rucker said. “We’re in the weight room at least four days a week working. Week in and week out we want to get in a little better shape, get stronger, each week. I’d rather make all the mistakes now and through pre-district but limit them more each week and get to the point where we’re making people pay for their mistakes. As we get into district, hopefully we’re very limited on our mistakes and we’ve gotten better at making teams pay for theirs.”

The new District 13-A Division II will feature all of Sidney’s league foes from the last two seasons, plus the addition of two-time reigning district champion Rising Star. DCTF picked the Eagles to win the district over Zephyr, Rising Star, Blanket and Gustine.

Sidney kicks off district play at home against Gustine, visits Rising Star, hosts Zephyr and ventures to Blanket.

“It’s always a good district,” Rucker said. “We have Zephyr again and we didn’t play our best ball against them last year, but they’re a good team and they’re hard to beat. Against Blanket, they’re a good team but we limited our mistakes against them last year. Rising Star lost a couple of kids but they’re still going to be tough and they’ll be ready to play. Gustine has some junior high kids coming up that are really good. We feel like we’re going to be in the mix with Zephyr, Blanket and Rising Star. I think it will come down to us four, but I feel like we’ll be on top of it.”

SIDNEY EAGLES 2024 SCHEDULE

Aug. 30	May	7:30 p.m.
Sept. 6	at Eden	7:30 p.m.
Sept. 13	Stephenville Faith	7:30 p.m.
Sept. 20	Bluff Dale	7:30 p.m.
Sept. 27	at Cherokee	7:30 p.m.
Oct. 4	at Lometa	7:30 p.m.
Oct. 11	OPEN
Oct. 18	Gustine#*	7:30 p.m.
Oct. 25	at Rising Star*	7:30 p.m.
Nov. 1	Zephyr*	7:30 p.m.
Nov. 8	at Blanket*	7:30 p.m.