CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — High school volleyball and football teams gathered for the first day of conditioning workouts on Monday, including the Miller Buccaneers.
This year is exciting for Corpus Christi ISD, because all six football teams are together in the same district.
The Bucs have sailed back to Class 5A's Division I after a two-year absence.
"When they get to high school, those natural rivalries that are established at the younger age just makes it better when you get to high school," said Miller football head coach Justen Evans. "You're able to play guys that you went to school with."
Evans enters his sixth season at the helm, coming off an 8-4 record.
"Now you have where we've had four consecutive winning seasons," he said. "Nobody in our program has lost, so the kids understand that. They know what the standard and expectation are, and they don't want to be the group that doesn't live up to the expectation."
The Bucs' wide receiver corps will play a key role in the offense, especially Lonnie Adkism. The 6-foot senior totaled over 1,600 receiving yards in each of the past two seasons.
"The wide receiver corps looking great. It's not just me this year. We know that our goal is to get to State this year," said the wide receiver. "We got to get to Dallas and we're going to do that for the Miller community."
Miller returns nine starters on offense and eight on defense.
"It makes them so special because they're so athletic. We're so deep," said Jaedyn Brown, Miller's junior quarterback. "Anyone of those guys can get in the field and we can go score."
Miller kicks off their season on the road at Rockport-Fulton. The Week One game is set for 7:30 p.m. Aug. 26.
"We got new teammates and everything. We're getting good chemistry with them and our defense is actually looking very good. We stacked this year," said Adkism. "We got a lot of depth this year and I think that's going to help us this year."
