New look of Cedar Creek football
(Top) Cedar Creek freshman quarterback Cason Floyd led the Cougar offense for the first time in an intrasquad scrimmage on Friday. (Bottom) The new score board at Cougar Field at Origin Bank Stadium will improve the gameday atmosphere for Creek home football games. Photos by Brennen Zigler/Matt Belinson
Cedar Creek fans got their first glimpse at the new-look Cougars, and the amenities that showcase them, at the Meet the Cougars event on Friday at Cougar Field at Origin Bank Stadium.
In the team’s first ‘live’ action of the season, with tackling in full effect, the Cougars ended the evening of festivities with an intrasquad scrimmage headlined by multiple young players standing out. The most notable of the bunch was Payton Harris, an 8th grader, who grabbed the attention of observers and coaches as he weaved throughout the field on his carries out of the backfield to go with big hits on defense.
“He’s shown some flashes, but that was more impressive than I was expecting,” Creek head coach William Parkerson said of Harris. “As long as he keeps learning the offense and keep working hard, he’ll have a chance to help us on Friday nights this year.”
Harris showed no fear on defense as well, even coming down to take on sophomore Trigger Woodard and a batch of veteran offensive lineman.
“He’s a bit of a gamer, I guess,” Parkerson said. “He’s shown some flashes, but he made some plays on offense and defense. It was good to see. He’s going to be able to help us out.”
Creek’s starting quarterback Cason Floyd didn’t throw much in the scrimmage and had up and down results in running the offense, calling out defensive looks, and staying calm under pressure. It’s easy to forget this will be his first time playing varsity football, and Parkerson knows patience is key with his young signal caller. However, he did give his freshman quarterback a true postgame grade just like a regular season game.
“Fair to partly cloudy. I think he had some first-time jitters seeing live action,” Parkerson said of Floyd. “So, we’ll clean that up, and I told him we’re going to get this on tape and grade it like a game, correct the mistakes and hopefully it’ll be a little better.”
Creek’s first preseason test against someone else will come Friday night at Cougar Field against Lakeside. Parkerson said nothing changes in terms of Creek’s playing style versus a true opponent.
“Defensively, we’re going to get 11 hats to the football,” Parkerson said. “ First thing we do every day is pursuit drill and getting to the football. Is that going to carry over? And then offensively, it’s gonna be can we control the line of scrimmage and get that inside run game going.”
Cedar Creek fans were also treated to the first look at the football team’s new video board at the event, with the board flashing multiple highlight videos and brief announcements. Creek Athletic Director Gene Vandenlangenberg is excited for the upgrade to improve the fan experience at Cougar Field.
“That scoreboard can do a lot of things. It’s going to create a great game day atmosphere, Vandenlangenberg said. “We’re still in the process of figuring out all the things it can do. We’re hoping to advertise on it, have replays, runouts — just enhance the game day experience. We’re very proud of it.”
Cedar Creek will scrimmage Lakeside at Friday at 6 p.m.
