(Marion) — The Marion Bulldogs are hard at work preparing for the 2023 high school football season.
The Bulldogs are coming off a 6-4 year in 2022 that saw them just miss the UIL playoffs. Marion is lead by Ryne Miller who is entering his 6th season as the Bulldogs’ head coach.
Miller is excited about the returning crop of players on offense in Marion this season. He says they’ve worked hard to get ready for the season.
“We had a great off-season. Bo Stahl at quarterback is coming back. Chase (Hallmark) is a big one coming back. Jaxon Garner is a First Team All-District receiver for us,” Miller said. “And most of our linemen are coming back, which is awesome. Justin Dehoyos and Garret Mann (are back). So, a lot of those guys are stepping up and filling big shoes but they’re excited for the challenge and they’ve been working their tails off since January and they’re ready to go.”
The Bulldogs are losing All-District 13-3A wide-out Dominic Castellanos who has gone on to play on the next level at Sul Ross State in Alpine, Texas but Stahl returns from the All-District First Team in 2022. The senior played mainly at running back last year. This year he will move to quarterback full-time after playing under center part-time last year.
On defense, All-District First Team linebacker Kross Kelso was lost to graduation but fellow first team linebacker Hadley Mote is back for his junior year. Miller says they have a good mix of returning players and players coming up from the JV on the defensive side of the ball.
“We’ve got a great defensive group back. We’ve got a great defensive line and a lot of guys returning from last year,” Miller said. “Hadley Mote leads the way for the linebacker corp. Losing Kross was a big one, but Hadley’s really stepped up. We have guys like Christian Sanchez and Aiden Batey stepping in. On the back end, we’ve got Jaxon Garner and Chase Hallmark and some good younger guys from the JV level that are stepping up to play this year, too.”
Miller says the expectations for his team have been raised again in 2023 and he says they’re ready to go to work and have a great football season this year.
Marion Bulldogs
2022 record: 6-4 (3-3 in district)
Coach: Ryne Miller (6th season)
District: 13-3A
Schedule
Aug. 25 at Hondo
Sept. 1 at Natalia
Sept. 8 vs. Gonzales
Sept. 15 at Karnes City
Sept. 22 vs. Randolph
Sept. 29 OPEN
Oct. 6 at Blanco
Oct. 13 vs. Llano
Oct. 20 at Ingram Moore
Oct. 27 vs. Cole *Broadcast on KWED and SeguinToday.com*
Nov. 3 at Luling