WESTVILLE YELLOWJACKETS
Coach: CRAIG LAIRD
2-8
OFFENSE
The Westville Yellowjackets have a new leader in Craig Laird who inherits a team with strong senior leadership and a desire to use that leadership to form a solid team for 2025.
“We have several players that played a lot of quality minutes last year and some strong senior leadership in the weight room. We lack some depth, so we’ll need some underclassmen to step up in a hurry,” said Laird. Nowhere is that leadership more noticeable than in the ‘Jackets backfield with quarterback Sammy Smith (5-10, 205, Sr.) and fullback Hunter Catron (6-2, 195, Sr.), a VYPE TOP 100 nominee. For those guys to do their job, there’s got to be some bulldozers up front to open the way and Westville has some good size in the line with Manny Latta (5-9, 240, Sr.), Tannor Bigfeather (5-8, 210, Jr.) and Raymond Watkins (5-11, 260, Jr.). “Tannor has good speed for his size and loves the weight room and was a state qualifier in powerlifting last year as a sophomore,” said Laird. Heading up the receiving corps for the Yellowjackets is Cam Crawford (5-8, 155, Jr.) at wide receiver.
DEFENSE
Catron will head up a strong linebacking group for the ‘Jackets where he’ll be joined by Brennon Gatewood (6-1, 180, Sr.) and Parker Dixon (5-8, 155, Sr.). A pair of strong defensive ends will make things tough for opposing linemen as Ryan Turman (5-10, 197, Sr.) and Colton Atchison patrol the D-line. J.W. Thurman (5-10, 140, Jr.) will be one of the lockdown guys in the secondary this season for Westville. Helping Laird get up and going in his new gig are his staff made up of Jerry Laird, Ty Shelley, Brendal Rector and Travis Cloud. Westville will enjoy the home field for their first two games followed by an open date so that will give them some time to adjust to the new philosophies of Laird and iron out any kinks before they get into the heart of their schedule and then their final two games are at home as they come down the stretch.
SCHEDULE
8-29 – vs. Kansas
9-5 – vs. Lincoln, Ark
9-12 – OPEN
9-19 – at Hulbert
9-26 – vs. Sperry
10-3 – at Tulsa Central
10-10 – vs. Dewey
10-16 – at Chandler
10-24 – at Metro Christian
10-31 – vs. Sequoyah Tahlequah
11-7 – vs. Tulsa Webster
