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Tony McSwain • The Madill Record A Kingston player runs in a play against Marietta in their matchup during the 2018 season. The Redskins return to action on Friday, September 6 when they host Hugo.
Tommy Bare returns for year two as head coach at Kingston High School. The veteran of teams such as Wewoka, Hugo and Putnam City West felt blessed to take over the Redskin progam in 2018.
“With my first year last year, I was eased into a good situation,” Bare said. “Coach Carraway left and the ship was going in the right direction. All I had to do was keep it going that way. I feel like I’ve done that.”
Good feelings aside, Bare, like his players, is ready for the 2019 season to get started.
This is in no small part to a pair of close losses last season that prevented the team from hoisting a golden ball.
“Last year we ended up 11-2,” he said. “We got beat in the third round of the playoffs by Sperry. Our two losses were to them and Beggs.
“They were the state champions and state runners up. Felt like we should have won both of those games. Got beat by 2 and got beat by 5.”
Bare didn’t mince words with the pair of losses.
“Obviously there is the bad taste in our mouths from the deafeats and that didn’t sit well with us,” he said. “But we know last year’s season is not going do anything with this year’s season and win total. We can build on it and the tradition that’s there from last year’s squad. The boys have done a good job of having good focus to this year and putting the hard work that’s necessary.”
Things to improve in 2019
As with most coaches, Bare has a list of things that he wants his team to fix.
“In the playoffs, we didn’t make plays that we needed to make at the right time,” he said. “We had the lead and gave up a long drive. They had a great football team and went to the finals. If we take care of the Kingston Redskins then everything else should take care of itself.”
Bare said taking care of themselves mean the Kingston Redskins need to be smart in their approach to each game.
“That entails eliminating turnovers, penalties, mental mistakes and things you can control,” he said.
Bare said the type of penalties that are preventable tend to offsides calls.
“Just mental things that we can control,” he said. “That irritates the coaching staff. Holding penalties are more judgment calls. You can call holding on every play. Offsides and motion penalties are things that we can control and eliminate.”
Coaching staff changes
Bare said the coaching staff will have one change this season.
“We actually lost one coach,” he said. “We didn’t replace Coach Tubbs. He was our defensive line coach and left and went over to Durant. So, we’re down to just seven coaches.”
However, Bare was quick to focus on his current crop of coaches.
“We have coach Mark Patterson whose our offensive coordinator and works with the running backs,” he said. “We have coach DeWayne Taylor who works with the offensive line and defensive line. Coach Zac Patterson who works with the secondary and wide receivers. Coach Chance Pearce works with the wide receivers and defensive ends. Jason Hightower is our defensive coordinator and works with the linebackers.”
Bare is proud of the staff he has and how they work with the Kingston players.
“We feel like we’re in pretty good shape with staff,” he said. “The kids are familiar with us from last year.”
The road ahead
This season will see a similar schedule to 2018, Bare said.
“Schedule wise we still have the same schedule as last year,” he said. “We just flip flop our three non-district games. We’ve got Hugo at home, Atoka at home. Then, we go to Sperry, who was the state champions last year. Obviously, we’ll get a chance to see how we stack up there.”
After that Kingston will face familiar district foes Davis, Tishomingo, Colgate, Marietta, Dickson and Lindsay.
“I look for Lindsay to be one of the most challenging teams in our district,” he said. “Obviously, Davis brings tradition, but they were kinda down last year. I expect them to bounce back and be in the mix.”
Bare said his team knows they will be considered a top ten to start the season.
“So obviously, we’ve stressed to our kids that we’ve got to prepare ourselves to go out each weekend and bring our best,” he said. “Cause if we don’t we might have someone slip up on us that shouldn’t.”