El Dorado’s football program enjoyed a successful season, going 7-5 and advancing to the second round of the 6A state playoffs before falling to eventual champion Greenwood. The Wildcats had four players named to the 6A All-State Football Team in seniors Josiah Crosby, AJ Gilmore, Cooper Henry and Jeremy Samuel.
Crosby, a 6-foot-3, 340-pound defensive tackle, anchored the defense with 40 tackles, including six tackles for loss with 3.5 sacks.
“Josiah is a big guy. He plays big, great with his hands, understands leverage. He’s probably the strongest guy on the team,” said El Dorado coach Chris Hill. “We ranked the defensive line and he was ranked number one in the conference meetings. He had an outstanding year. We’re happy to see him get recognized for his play.”
Gilmore was a three-way standout as receiver, safety and kick returner for the Wildcats. He had 64 tackles with seven interceptions and two defensive touchdowns. Offensively, he had 42 receptions for 836 yards and 10 touchdowns and ended up with 1,799 all-purpose yards.
Hill said Gilmore will have an opportunity to play on Saturdays. The only question is on which side of the football.
“I don’t really know. I think probably defense,” Hill said. “I think he’d be a great returner. He’s very elusive and hard to tackle. He’s put on about 15 pounds since last year. I expect him to put on another 10-to-15 before he reports to wherever he’s going next year.”
Henry is now a two-time All-State kicker for the Wildcats. He was 50-of-50 on extra points, kicked two field goals, including a 47 yarder. He averaged 37.6 yards per punt with seven downed inside the 20. Henry also had nine touchbacks on kickoffs.
“There’s not a guy on the team that takes more pride in their play than Cooper,” said Hill. “He spends a lot of time doing that. He’s a two-time All-State player. He’s one of those deals, you may not notice it until it’s gone of how valuable he was to our team. I think he’s one of the best kickers in the state. If somebody don’t give him a chance to play college ball, they’re missing out.”
Samuel was El Dorado’s leading rusher, finishing with 1,203 yards and 15 touchdowns on 225 attempts. He also had 11 receptions for 81 yards and a touchdown before missing the Wildcats’ final game with an injury.
“He had a great year. He proved to be very durable, had a lot of carries,” said Hill, who said injuries at other positions forced Samuel to carry a bigger load at running back after being set to split carries with Jakori Lumsey and Bretaveon Brown at the start of the season.
“Jakori got hurt and Man-Man had to make a position change. Doing that, I wanted to take as much load off him as I could to let him focus on playing mike linebacker.”