Any schedule that begins with South Central Association opponents is a difficult one.
The 2016 season for the Houston High School football team will again be a challenging one with seven of the nine regular-season games in conference play. The schedule was completed with a pair of non-conference games against Ash Grove and St. James to begin the year.
The Tigers do have a homefield advantage with five of those nine contests at home.
Second-year HHS head coach Eric Sloan said the conference slate again appears to be a challenging one.
“There’s never a SCA game on the schedule that you can pinpoint as a win or one you can not have all the varsity kids out there all night,” he said. “Every game is a dogfight.”
The Tigers, who went 4-6 last year, begin the campaign at home Aug. 19 against Ash Grove. It’s a new matchup for the schools that last played in 2010 and ’11.
Ash Grove went 7-4 a year ago.
“I think they were a good pickup for us,” Sloan said. “Both teams have struggled in recent years but had better seasons last year. On paper, it looks like it could be a pretty good matchup.”
Houston hits the road for the first time the following week for an Aug. 28 meeting with St. James. HHS won last year’s game with a thrilling 36-35 come-from-behind victory.
A chance to end a 35-game losing skid to Salem presents itself on Sept. 2 as Houston travels to Dent County. It’s the first of seven straight SCA games.
Texas County bragging rights are on the line Sept. 9 as the Tigers host rival Cabool. The following week, Thayer comes to Tiger Stadium.
Sandwiched between road contests at Ava and Mountain Grove is homecoming Sept. 30 against Willow Springs.
The regular season concludes Oct. 14 against Liberty.
HHS is already preparing for next season with weight room and conditioning sessions each weekday since May 31. The team concludes a week-long camp today (Thursday) and will participate in team camp at Higginsville on Friday and Saturday.
The first official day of practice is Aug. 1. The Tigers will host a jamboree with Mountain Grove and Strafford on Aug. 12. Sloan said an additional team could be added.
8/12 Jamboree here
8/19 vs Ash Grove
8/26 at St. James
9/2 at Salem
9/9 vs Cabool
9/16 vs Thayer
9/23 at Ava
9/30 VS Willow Springs*
10/7 at Mountain Grove
10/14 VS Liberty
10/21 Districts
*homecoming