It’s been a week since El Dorado’s 12 seniors walked off the high school football field for the last time. The Wildcats ended their season with a 48-0 loss at Greenwood in the second round of the 6A Playoffs.
Coach Chris Hill guided El Dorado to a 7-5 record in his second season at the helm. He said this group of seniors helped lay the foundation for what’s to come in the future.
“They’re an outstanding group,” said Hill. “It’s a small group. They’ve done everything we’ve asked them to do from a leadership standpoint, from a work standpoint, from an effort standpoint. I don’t know if we could’ve asked for a better group of seniors than we had.
“Last year was a good group and this year was equally as good. I think they set the course for where we want to get to. It’s amazing how many kids we had that did not miss one day of practice all season. When you’re here and you’re working, you’ve got a chance to get better. That’s what I think about these seniors. They got better and better each year, got better each game and worked hard to do that. That’s not an accident. It was intentional. Those guys improved and I’m proud of every one of them.”
The Wildcats went through adversity with injuries during the season. During the summer, the team’s quarterback transferred.
“When you go through tough times, you do one of two things, you bond together or you turn on each other,” Hill said. “Our kids bonded together like winners do. They came through for us and were quarterfinalists, got beat by a team that’s going to be the eventual state champs. That’s nothing to hang your head about, nothing to be ashamed of.
“Our kids are competitors. Competitors compete in practice. They compete in games. They compete for playing time. A situation can’t get too tough for them. It can never get too hard. When you’ve got guys like that, you have a chance to win ball games. You’re not going to win with guys that are not tough. I think we developed into some tough guys, mentally and physically. Our kids did everything in the world we asked out of them. We moved some people around in some positions and they accepted the challenge. When you get a challenge you do one of two things, you can shy away from it or you can bow up and accept it. Our guys accepted the challenge and I tell you, I couldn’t be more proud of our kids.”