Entering his second year under the helm, Coach Lionell Crawford talks about his first year’s success.
Building a strong foundation is the buy product. Along with a good foundation comes expectancy. Coach Crawford expects nothing but the best from his players on and off the field. As the head football coach of the Aldine Mustangs coach Crawford have seen his team develop in the short span that he’s been at the school.
The Mustangs have some good young kids that will have to step up on defense. The strength of the defense will be the defensive line where two of the three linemen returned. Jr. DT Aaron Neal who was second team all-district last season and DT Galem Mailor (6-2 265, 5.2) will shore up the defensive line. Mailor figures to be a big part of the Mustangs puzzle, he’s also the valedictorian of the school. George Lewis is holdover from last season and will lead the secondary. A lot will be expected of Adrian Thomas who plays OLB, he’s a hard worked and is intelligent.
Speed wise the team is balanced with hand full kids that are 4.5, 4.6 range but without any blazers.
Expect the offense to be pretty much like last year’s team ball control and could see a little more passing than last year mainly due to standout QB Jordan Moore (6-3 185, 4.5). Moore passed for 1,100 yards while tallying 400 rushing yards. Other key offensive players are WR Dazon Graves (6-5, 190, 4.7), OL Lawrence Willis, Jr. RT J. Hampton (6-4, 295), WR Marty Robinson who is now the inside the WR who wasn’t a varsity player last season. Coach Crawford also mentions that Hampton has a very bright future and is smart. O’Ryan Wiley who played WR last year will take over the RB duties along with T. Watson.
Coach Crawford thinks the scrimmage against Westfield will help identify where there are.
Moving into district with the Alief Schools poses more problems. “Alief is going to be tough; they are very athletic and very well coached kids. So it will be a matter of bringing you’re A game every week. It want be any teams that you will be able to by pass and look to the following week. I think it will be a big challenge for us and who ever comes out of our district will be a good representative for us,” said Aldine’s Coach Crawford.
In this district kids will have to be ready to play and also have some things to go their way such as avoiding the injury bug and have the ball bounce their way.
He knows about deep playoff runs, as a starting QB of the ’89 Aldine team Crawford led the Mustangs to state were they came up short against Odessa Permian (28-21).