CLEVELAND BLUE RAIDERS
Head coach: Marty Wheeler (4-6 in one year here; 103-61 overall)
Returning starters: 5 offensive; 3 defensive
Key players: QB Gage Kinsey (5-11, 170); RB Tetoe Boyd (5-10, 185); WR Kley McGowan (6-4, 185); DL Ben Gray (5-7, 220); OL Evan Neal (6-4, 330).
Team strengths: Boyd was a 1,500-yard rusher last season and will have an opportunity to run behind Neal, a Division I prospect. Those two, along with Kinsey, will help a young Blue Raiders team grow from a leadership and attitude perspective.
Team concerns: The aforementioned youth after losing eight starters on defense from last season’s team. Only two of the returning starters are seniors.
Breakout candidate: Junior Destun Thomas transferred to Cleveland from rival Bradley Central in the spring and has the sort of athleticism to make an impact at both receiver and defensive back.
Season outlook: Losing a number of players to the college ranks, highlighted by receiver Robert “Deuce” Flowers going to Samford, created a void on both sides of the ball for Coach Wheeler’s second team. He has talked a lot this offseason about the work ethic and attitude needed to succeed, but he feels good about his players’ abilities to understand what is expected.
A proud program that once won 54 consecutive games and three straight state championships in the mid-1990s, Cleveland has topped 10 wins on just one occasion since 1996 and finished better than .500 only three times in the past decade while going through four coaches in that span.
Wheeler has the program headed in the right direction, but to continue that trend he’ll need the trio of Kinsey, Boyd and McGowan – a Division I basketball prospect – to produce and for a young defense to mature quickly.