When the Conroe Tigers lift in their brand-new weight room on the first floor of the building we all watched progress beyond the west end zone of Buddy Moorhead Stadium last season, the players can now take a moment, look out the big windows facing the field and visualize.
Regular season goal is to win a district title. That’s a part of the visualization.
But in July – when the weight room was ready to use – and into camp starting in early August, Conroe was only visualizing what was in front of them.
A couple scrimmages before the opener August 25 against Paetow.
“We just want to take everything one by one and one opponent at a time,” Conroe senior receiver Nigel Leday said. “Don’t overlook anyone. Just stay humble.”
Same idea for senior linebacker Mitch Melton, who just verbally committed to Sam Houston on Friday.
“I think the goal is to win district, but of course we are taking one game at a time,” he said. “We have two scrimmages while most teams have one.”
Conroe has taken some steps the past couple years. In 2021, it was the playoffs for the first time in nine years. In 2022, it was a winning record for the first time since 2008 and a return trip to the playoffs.
In 2023, Conroe has the opportunity to reach the playoffs for the third straight year, something that hasn’t been accomplished since 2007-09. If a return trip is accomplished, the Tigers are still striving for their first postseason win since 1999.
Sixth year Conroe head coach Cedric Hardeman doesn’t spend a lot of time thinking that far ahead.
“The next step for us is just fine tuning habits,” Hardeman said. “I want to make sure our kids know the importance of it. More importantly, we have to be a program that if everything we do – and we get an opportunity – we can’t just celebrate making the playoffs.
“That has to be the expectation.”
Conroe, 6-5 last year and the fourth place finisher in District 13-6A, returns scattered talent on both sides of the field.
“Every year is a new year,” Hardeman said. “Even in high school. You hear college and pros talk about it. But you graduate – for us – 60-70 percent of your team and you’ve got guys returning back which is good. Trying to put the pieces to the puzzle together is always exciting about being in this position.”
The defense – particularly the secondary and linebackers – is where Conroe returns a strong core.
“We’ve got some kids that can play,” Hardeman said of the secondary, which returns three guys who performed well there last year playing in new positions.. “We got a lot of kids we threw out there for the first time at starting or playing that position.”
DeVondre McGee, who committed to TCU earlier this month, made an impact last year when he was elevated to a starting role.
Isaiah Pruitt and Tice Williams both were offensive players who were flipped to the secondary.
At middle linebacker, Melton, a move-in that played tight end prior to coming to Conroe last season, was the team’s leading tackler. Weakside linebacker Tate Trantham is also back.
Up front, Matthew Westmoreland leads the defensive line unit that will see the most change since last season after four contributors there graduated.
Conroe’s offense lost quite a bit of production on offense, but returns six starters.
“I think this is a very new team, especially on the offensive side of the ball,” Melton said. “First time a junior quarterback in Conroe (in a long time). Pretty much a new offensive line. It feels like we lost so many seniors, but we are bringing so many guys back in different position group.”
“At quarterback, we had a kid Christian Nunley who got a lot of work in at 7-on-7 and he ran track for us in the spring,” Hardeman said. “He’ll be our first junior to start (in a few years). He’s a very talented kid, very athletic kid.”
Nunley played at Grand Oaks last year.
He will hand the ball off to senior Nic Medina and a breakout runner in Dramecko Green, a junior that’s starting to garner some college interest this offseason.
Hardeman said he’s been proud of Medina taking Green under his wing and the pair make for a formidable backfield.
“(Dramecko) is a very talented kid,” Hardeman said. “Physically gifted and his maturity has continued to grow and understanding the game has really taken a big step.”
They will run behind an offensive line that returns two starters – Tyler Tates, who missed most of last season with an injury, and Quiavion Swapsy.
Wide receiver has two main guys back in Leday and Braylon Reece. It’s been a competition in that position group.
“For the last couple years from the receiver standpoint, we’ve had that go-to guy,” Hardeman said. “Michael Phoenix for a couple years and then Louis Williams III took over after that. This year, we really haven’t established that go-to guy. But, we’re probably as deep as we’ve been with quality playmakers. I think over the course of the first couple games we’ll find that out.”
Conroe begins the season with three straight home games – Paetow, Eisenhower (who requested to play at Moorhead as their stadium is being renovated) and Caney Creek is homecoming and the start of district play in Week 3.
“We have a good group and this group has experienced success,” Hardeman said. “Most importantly, they’ve experienced what it takes to have that success. To see them take that up a notch and us fine tuning it and the leaders leading, it’s been great to succeed. I’m excited to see what we can do. I pray to stay healthy as we have a very, very competitive district.”
