By Gene Schallenberg
The New Waverly Bulldogs planned on a longer stay in the state football playoffs. For that reason, Bulldogs basketball coach Bill Goffney did not schedule his first game until Dec. 1.
Surprisingly, New Waverly bowed out of the football playoffs earlier than expected last Saturday. Woodville upset the Dogs 21-14 at Bowers Stadium.
“Under the circumstances, you kind of hate it. But at the same time, it’s good that you don’t have to hit the court as quick as we did last year,” Goffney said Tuesday of his 2008-09 team, which began the season without any starters because the football team was still alive in the playoffs.
“We rushed into the season last year and had a lot of games at the beginning. It really wore us out. It gives us time to get our legs under us and get into basketball shape.”
With the scheduled opener at Montgomery on the horizon and no other commitments in the way, the Bulldogs may get their season started earlier than expected.
“We’ve called a couple of teams. With the holidays coming up, we don’t want to mess with that,” Goffney said. “So we’re trying to schedule a game for early next week so we can get started a little quicker. We’ll find out in the next day or so if we’ll have an earlier game.
“If we can’t get a game, then we’ll be fine. Having two full weeks of practice won’t be a bad thing for us, either. We can continue to work on conditioning and get our legs ready.”
Since Monday, the Bulldogs have been practicing in the gym, preparing as much as possible for the upcoming season.
“We did a little shootaround yesterday. We played a little today,” the coach said. “Once we get our season started, our practices will get more intense. We’ll probably focus a little more on defensive pressure.”
The Bulldogs, who have reached the state tournament the past two seasons, will attempt to make it to Austin for a third straight time without some familiar faces.
In 2007, the Bulldogs fell to Tuscola Jim Ned in the semifinals, then last season, New Waverly lost to Ponder in the state championship game.
“We’ve got two real big shoes to fill, trying to replace Joseph (Carrington) and Sir. Horace (Saulsberry),” Goffney said. “You can’t really replace those guys. You can only hope to try and fill their shoes. All the kids want to live up to expectations. Everyone’s real eager.”
New Waverly will enter the season ranked No. 1 in the state in Class 2A. But Goffney said he would much rather have that same distinction in March when state championship medals are handed out at the Erwin Center in Austin. Goffney and the Bulldogs hope that the third time’s the charm.
“Everybody wants to be number one,” the coach added. “That’s what you work for. But we want to be number one at the end of the year. We have the X on our back. Everybody’s going to be gunning for us just like last year.
“We’re just excited about getting started real soon. We’re glad it’s here. We’re working for state. We want to get back there. That’s our goal.”
