Replacing several starters, Wylie East has its work cut out for them with a young offensive line.

Head coach Marcus Gold and his staff still feel confident ahead of the new year. With young players waiting in the wings behind a veteran offensive line, coach Gold feels like they’ll be prepared to make an impact ahead of the new year.

“Last season’s roster was heavily senior-loaded,” Gold said. “That’s not always a bad thing, because we’re really excited about our young guys. We’ve got our offensive line coach Alex Gillis who’s excited to work with these kids, and we think they’ll be good this season.”

The Raiders still have several juniors and seniors competing for snaps in 2022. Seniors Evan Potts, Mark Moslener and Daniel Okonkwo will have an opportunity to earn roles, while juniors Clark Pierson, Alex Bohanon, David Moseri and Amjad Thabata are also competing for playing time. Regardless of who wins the position battle, coach Gold is confident that the new players can improve the team at the line of scrimmage this offseason.

“One thing that is going to be very noticeable on our offensive line is that they should be physically bigger and stronger,” Gold said. “One of the things we looked at toward the end of the season was looking at statistics and seeing how we can improve. We identified goal-line offense and defense as a priority and that comes down to the big boys up front. We prioritized getting bigger and they’ve made a lot of strides in the weight room to get to that point.”

During the offseason, the coaching staff has focused on getting the team stronger in the trenches during the weightlifting program. That development has helped build a strong foundation that coach Gold said should lead to good chemistry on the field.

“It’s a very different position group than the rest of the team,” Gold said. “It’s a very humble group that isn’t always going to get their name in the paper but is ready to work. The mental aspect of the game is where we want them to grow and understand their concepts. We didn’t do spring football, which would help with the physicality, but we think it will help us long term to improve mentally and then improve the physicality in the fall with two scrimmages.”

To read the full story, see next week’s issue. For more sports stories, see The Wylie News in print or online. Support your community newspaper for less than $40 a year.

By Kyle Grondin • kgrondin@csmediatexas.com