The Southside Mavericks aren’t all the way back. Not in the sense they were a decade ago.

But they’re a lot further along than they were last year.

The Mavericks wrapped up spring practice by creating some depth in the secondary and on the defensive line. They found a few stars along the way, too.

“You look at your experienced guys coming back, and you polish those guys, but you want to find some depth, too,” Southside coach Jeff Williams said. “You want to get your guys plenty of reps and find out who else can play. I thought that was important.”

The Mavericks, who will host a two-day team camp with Fayetteville, Russellville, Van Buren, Bentonville and Poteau on June 4-5, return a number of key offensive holdovers from 2017, including quarterback Taye Gatewood.

“Offensively, we know what we have in Taye and Ricardo (Savoy),” Williams said. “The key is to find some depth at the other positions and develop some young guys.”

Williams said receiver Jordyn Jackson had a good spring. Two other guys also stepped up receiver, Colton McBride and Erich Schwarz.

First-year defensive coordinator Jacob Cox, who is replacing the departed Steven Thessing, who has moved on to Greenwood, made sure linebacker Darin Davenport had some reps.

Williams also said the Mavericks took it easy on Davenport, who is coming off back-to-back injury-plagued seasons in 2016-17. He play half a season in ’16 and then was injured again the team’s August scrimmage with Alma.


“We didn’t get anybody with major injuries,” Williams said. “Davenport could have gotten in there a little more, and we’ll work him back slowly in team camp, too.”

Southside found some good young secondary players, Williams said.

“We have Jaylin Coleman, Deedee (Smith) and Bennett (Weindel) back,” he said. “Eli Lyles and Dakota Wareham and (Jonah) Hill are learning on the fly. Seeing the young guys getting in there and learning the speed of the game, that’s important in the spring.

“That’s going to give up some depth.”

Another area of concern is at defensive line.

“I think we’re going to be bigger, faster, and stronger than we’ve been in awhile,” Williams said. “We have some guys like Marteaz Gaston, who is sort of a hybrid (linebacker/lineman), Travis Chaffey II, Jeremiah Van Hook and Luke Richardson. We’ve had some young guys like Shawn Rogers, (Caleb) Sanders, (Marlon) Briggs and (Jack) Hannan step up as well.

“You like to look up and see the older guys with the younger guys.”

The Mavericks will scrimmage at Alma on Aug. 20 and open the 2018 season Aug. 31 at Bentonville West.

“I feel like we’ve improved in some key areas we had to get better in, and we still have room for improvement,” Williams said. “But that’s a good start.”
