Friday night’s season opener will be a homecoming for Watson Chapel football coach Steven Heard.
The Wildcats will travel to Helena-West Helena Central High School for a 7 p.m. kickoff on Friday.
Heard, a Central alumnus, said he has only been on the visiting sideline of the Cougars’ stadium once before when he was coaching at Dumas.
“It’s going to be pretty awesome to be back at home on the other sideline,” Heard said. “It’s my 25th class reunion that weekend, so it’ll be a lot of my old classmates in town, a lot of people in town. Of course, it’s Labor Day weekend, so it’s going to be a pretty good event.”
This will be Heard’s second season at Watson Chapel (2-7 in 2024). The Wildcats hosted Central in last year’s season opener, with the Cougars winning 42-18 in Pine Bluff.
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That result began what was a big turnaround season for Central (6-5 in 2024). The Cougars, who had won one game in the previous four seasons, won their first four games in 2024 en route to a 5-1 start. A three-game losing streak in October slowed their momentum, but they nonetheless reached the playoffs for the first time since 2018.
Heard said he wasn’t surprised by Central’s turnaround with his nephew, Kenny Gilcreast, starting at quarterback.
“He’s a phenomenal athlete, four-sport athlete, great kid,” Heard said. “I think he has really put that team on his shoulders. They follow him. The upperclassmen, they followed him. There was no backlash or anybody being jealous or anything when he became a starter as a freshman.”
Watson Chapel is trying to work a similar turnaround for its program. Last year’s two wins were a step forward after winning once in the prior three seasons. The first of those two wins came the week after losing to Central.
Heard said though this Watson Chapel team was picked to finish seventh the 5A-Central Conference by the coaches, he believes this team can surprise a few teams and show progress from years past.
If that is to start this week, stopping Gilcreast and the Central offense will be vital for the Wildcats. Each of Watson Chapel’s two wins last season came in games where the Wildcats held their opponents to 14 points or fewer. Central was held below that mark only twice last season, including in its playoff loss to Class 4A state runner-up Elkins.
Heard said this year’s game with Central should be a good matchup and will come down to which side makes fewer mistakes.
“I think we match up well as far as overall team speed,” Heard said. “We’re pretty fast. We match up well with the numbers. I think we may have a slight advantage as far as numbers. I think we’re a little deeper at depth than they are. As far as experience, I think they might have a slight advantage in experience, because they played a lot of younger guys last year and they brung them back.”