Ben Whitehead
MARLOW — Going into the 2009 season, the Marlow Outlaws expected to have a rebuilding year after graduating a bunch of seniors from 2008. Unfortunately, the season didn’t quite turn out to be successful according to head coach Barry Foster.
The Outlaws ended up with 16 different players missing games with injuries this year which caused Foster to dig deep into his inexperienced depth chart and fill in the vacant spots.
Senior quarterback Chance Rice was injured in the first quarter of the first game of the year against Tuttle and in stepped freshman Wakely Bergner.
Bergner led the Outlaws the remainder of the season, but his inexperience showed.
“At the beginning of the season, we talked about not turning the ball over and not having too many injuries,” said Foster. “We didn’t do a good job with either of those things. We knew our inexperience would be a factor and we just hoped to get better as the season went on.”
The Outlaws did improve throughout the year, said Foster, and running back Kaleb King had a big part in that.
King rushed for 801 yards in his senior season, which came as a surprise to Foster.
“We didn’t expect that out of him because of how small he is, but it was very good to have him back there,” Foster said of King.
After two shutout losses to Tuttle and Elgin to open the season, the Outlaws appeared to turn a corner with a win over rival Comanche. However, the tough schedule proved too much for Marlow as the Outlaws went 2-5 the rest of the year.
Coach Foster said if the Outlaws had won their final game on the road at Lone Grove, they might have been able to call the season a success, having known what they did going into the year. The 21-14 loss will linger throughout the offseason, but Foster hopes that will provide his team with a lot of motivation to work hard all year long to get better.
The 2009 squad only graduates seven seniors, so plenty of guys will be back with experience.
Foster would like to see his team become more dedicated in the weight room and feels that an offseason workout program should assist with that.
“We’ve always done well from August through May,” said Foster. “Once the boys go home for the summer, we kind of lose their attention so we need to do a better job of that this year.
“We are also going to do some 7-on-7 passing this summer which is something we have never done. Hopefully, that’ll get us some good practice in going into preseason camp.”
According to Foster, Bergner is constantly trying to get better by watching game film and being a good student of the game. The passing league should help Bergner who Foster said needs to cut down on his interceptions.
The extra work will be crucial if Marlow is to improve on its 3-7 record next season. The schedule won’t be any easier next year as most of the teams in the Outlaws’ district have been fighting through the playoffs this year.
District 3A-1 will be stacked with talent as Weatherford, Anadarko, Blanchard, Bridge Creek and Tuttle will be among those vying for playoff spots.
