The Durant Lions wrapped up two weeks of lively spring football practice last week by getting some live reps in a team camp Friday against powerhouses Sulphur and Idabel.
Coach Todd Vargas’ squad held its own and more against the Class 3A stalwarts as they built momentum toward what they hope to be a lengthy fall campaign in 2025.
The Lions return a host of experience, including 24 seniors among the whopping 69 players that participated in the spring drills.
“We had two good weeks of practice and were really excited about the attendance,” Vargas said. “It’s the best numbers we have had in 10th through 12th since we have been here and our 24 seniors is the largest senior group that I have ever coached. They are a really talented bunch and close-knit group.
“It was a long two weeks for our coaching staff. We practiced two hours a day with the varsity group and then were able to practice with next year’s freshman group for a couple hours after that as well. We are very excited about the prospects of this team in the fall.”
While many of the faces were the familiar variety with a host of multi-year starters in the senior classes, Durant also had a pair of new faces on the field in the form of two McAlester move-ins that were multi-year starters for the Buffaloes.
Joining the Lion ranks are Kacin Washington Mazey and Cleveland Williamson. Mazey threw for 1,500 yards a year ago while Williamson intercepted six passes on the defensive side.
They will only add to a very veteran cast that includes nine seniors that all saw some action as freshmen before moving into key starting roles over the past two years.
“I think the new guys will blend in well,” Vargas said. “We are excited about what they can add for us. We have a lot of guys with seasoned leadership and experience to rely on. This is as deep and talented as we have ever been. It’s the first time since I have been here that we feel like if we happen to
The Durant Lions football team finished a spring camp last week.
have someone go down with an injury there shouldn’t be that major a drop off.
“We still have some work to do but like where we are heading into summer workouts. Our goal is to have five starting offensive linemen that we don’t have to rely on defensively. Then find 11 on defense that we can count on every play. We obviously have some offensive skill guys that are talented enough that they will probably play both ways. We are as deep in the secondary as we have been and a good group of offensive linemen with several youngsters coming along.”
Vargas and crew found plenty of positives in the live matchup with the team camp opponents, including defending state runner-up Sulphur.
It was also a spring board for summer conditioning camps as well as 7-on-7 competition in which the Lions will travel to Denison on Monday evenings starting June 9.
“We took the spring practices to look at what we do schematically,” said Vargas. “I was not really surprised by how well we played in the team camp. Defensively we ran to the football really well. Every kid we put out on the field played extremely hard. I thought we moved the ball extremely well offensively and ran it how we wanted even though we were pretty vanilla. I was pleased with the overall effort.
“I’m really proud of our coaches and players. They’ll have a week off before we start our summer workouts, including 7-on-7 where we are going to have a lot of kids participating each week. It’s not that long before we start practice on August 11 for what we anticipate being a more than 10-week season to just see how far we can take things.”
