Photo

Click on photo to enlarge

Rex Brown

Seneca quarterback Jordan McNeely (10) looks downfield during a scrimmage at the Pickens High School Jamboree last Thursday in Pickens. McNeely and the Bobcats open their season on Friday, hosting Pendleton at 7:30 p.m.

SENECA — There’s a new look to the Seneca High School football team that stretches far beyond first-year head coach Ron Duncan.

When you go so far as to add it all up, the Bobcats’ starting lineup alone has 20 new faces from a season ago, giving the team a completely new persona this time around.

But as the Bobcats have been preparing for their season opener on Friday night against Pendleton, there hasn’t been much talk around the locker room or on the practice field about just how young the team is.

Simply put, there’s no point, much less time, for them to be concerned about that.

With all the new faces around the Seneca football program, the excitement has far outweighed the hesitation and apprehension of going into a new season with so many questions marks, as the Bobcats look to begin their journey back to the upper echelon of the Western AAA region.

“We want to be as good as we can be, and we don't want to put a limit on what we can do,” Duncan said. “I think before this is over with, I think we have a chance to be a pretty good football team.”

Despite not having much experience, the Bobcats are still a team loaded with gifted athletes and team speed.

Only defensive lineman Lucas White and defensive back Kenny Watt return as starters from last season’s team that made it into the postseason, but Seneca showed promise during jamboree appearances last week at Pickens and Daniel, where the Bobcats went a combined 3-0 in short scrimmages with West-Oak and the jamboree hosts.

But those were only scrimmages, and the Bobcats are well aware they didn’t win anything, as Duncan said the only thing to take from those performances is that there’s some strong potential for the team, and it needs to continue improving to get there.

“We've still got a lot of growing and maturing to do, but the effort is there, so we're excited with where we're at,” he said. “We've got such a young, inexperienced team, there’s going to be a lot of firsts for a lot of people on Friday night.”

One of those firsts could be witnessing an excitement level unseen around Seneca in recent years, as support for the Bobcats has been highly visible around the school and in the community since Duncan took the job in January.

“We have school pride coming back,” senior wide receiver James Hunter said. “Everybody's excited about everything.”

And while Duncan wants a good outing to start off the season, he’s aware that there could be some bumps and growing pains along the way, especially going against the likes of Pendleton to open the season.

But in the grand scheme of things, Duncan knows Friday night isn’t the end all-be all of the Bobcats’ season, as his team will be taking it one game at a time as continues to mature.

“This game won't make or break our season, and we want to treat all our games the same,” he said. “We know we want to be peaking by the time we get to the region, but we want to play well every time we wear that uniform. We just want to do our best.”