Hometown Heroes: Huntsville Hornets

HUNTSVILLE, Texas (KBTX) - Once again, the Hornets’ defensive front will be formidable, led by the play of Ed Bobino, who had 32 tackles and 5 sacks. He’ll be joined by DE Sebastian Patterson in that group. Cody McLerran returns in the secondary. Junior A.J. Wilson takes the reins at quarterback, with top receivers in Justin Butcher and Jordan Woodberry. As a sophomore, Wilson completed 34 of 53 passes for 416 yards. Butcher caught 18 passes for 167 yards, scoring 4 TDs. The 21 wins over the last two seasons is the best two-year stretch for Huntsville since 1990, the last of three consecutive 11-win seasons under Coach Joe Clements. Huntsville’s 2020 non-district schedule is challenging, with the Hornets playing a trio of Class 6A teams. Rodney Southern’s goal for Huntsville is to “gain experience and compete for a district championship.”

The Hornets will have a revamped roster in 2020 after they graduated 34 seniors. Nearly every starter this year will be new to varsity football.

”This year we have a bunch of young kids. We’ve got work them in and get them going, so we can be successful like we did two years ago so we don’t have to sneak in,” said Huntsville Senior Cody McLerran.

“Like two years ago when we lost T’Vondre Sweat and Jaylon Griffin and a lot of those guys. Everybody said, well what are you going to do? Briceon Hayes and some of these other guys stepped up. Now we’ve lost a big crop on both sides of the ball. I think from a skill perspective we’re going to be as good if not better. We’re just going to be so inexperienced that you hope don’t take a situation and not know for sure what to do. Let your talent and your reps take care of that,” said Huntsville Head Coach Rodney Southern.

This new Hornets squad will see the field for the first time September 25th when they host Nederland.

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