EASTERN, Ky. (WMDJ) – After winning a combined six games on the field over a four-year span, the Floyd Central Jaguars turned heads in 2023 with a six-win season including a home playoff victory.
Now coach Shawn Hager hopes those past struggles combined with last season’s success will build momentum towards a possible district championship in 2024.
“It depends on how we develop, but we’re not settling for nothing less than a district championship this year,” Hager said.
The Jaguars return every lineman this season, which should provide an edge over district opponents Martin County, Knott County Central and district rival Prestonsburg. Hager says that experience will be the key to a successful season.
“I’ve told our kids, if they just come out and block and on defense, we give up too many points sometimes to win against the good teams, so we are focusing more on defense and I think defensively, we’re looking better right now than we have in the past few years,” Hager said.
Last season, Floyd Central surrendered an average of 37.5 points per game to opponents, the highest average of points given in seven seasons. The Jaguars last held opponents to under 30-points per game on average in 2018.
Floyd Central will lean heavy on the ground attack with two of last year’s top three rushers returning. Seniors Jace Martin and Colt Shelton will anchor the backfield. Both players saw significant time at quarterback as well, but Martin will be the primary signal caller in 2024. Both players combined for 964 yards rushing and 14 touchdowns.
Martin tossed 834 yards through the air to go along with 10 touchdowns last season. Shelton, Martin and departed senior BJ Petersen combined to throw 1,535 passing yards – a single season school record. Hager likes his team’s ability to stretch the defense again this fall.
“We’re going to test the waters; I think we can throw the ball a little bit.” Hager said, “If you go back to last season, there were two games where we threw the ball 28 times.”
One major goal will be replacing last season’s receiving core as only two players that caught a pass return this year. Junior Damion Cotton and sophomore Ethan Curry combined for three catches and 18 yards receiving. The Jaguars will search for wide out help from freshman playmaker Wesley Buck and senior Austin Clark, who saw significant playing time receiving on special teams last season.
Hager says he has 43-players on this year’s roster, more players than even the first season of football at Floyd Central when the school combined the rosters of Allen Central and South Floyd in 2017. Although he has more numbers, injuries are still a concern.
“We did have some depth, but we’ve got some that’s injured and it’s kind of hurt us early, but if we can get everyone back healthy then we’ve got more depth than we’ve ever had since our first year of football.”
The Jaguars will open the season on Friday, August 23rd at home against Paintsville with another home game against Leslie County the following week. Floyd Central’s first road trip will be September 6th at Powell County. Other schedule highlights include hosting county rival Betsy Layne on September 20th and “the Hager Bowl” with Father and son meeting on October 18th as the Jaguars visit Prestonsburg.
