DeKalb County Tigers Return With Junior, Senior Heavy Team

The DeKalb County Tigers are ready to take the next step in their 2019 campaign after making the playoffs in 2018.

Head Coach Steve Trapp is helming the Tigers again this year, and returns most of the talent that carried them last season. For Trapp, it’s the first time in a couple seasons he’s had this luxury at DCHS.

“The way I’ve explained our team this year is that is this first year in two years that we’ve had more juniors and seniors that’ll be on the field than sophomores and freshmen,” Trapp said. “On paper, we like what we see, but we also know that you don’t win football games paper.”

As far as the upperclassmen go, Senior Left Tackle Isaac Cross leads a crop of nine returning players on offense. Cross, along with running back David Bradford, will be relied upon by Trapp to continue bringing a strong voice to the locker room this season.

“He’s been a four-year starter for us, and he’s already committed to Tennessee Tech,” Trapp said. “I’ve spoken to a lot of college coaches about him, and I’ve told them that if I had 11 of him, I’d never lose a football game … (Bradford’s) been starting since he was a sophomore so he’s got a lot of experience.”

After making the playoffs in 2018 and losing to Maplewood in the first round, Trapp knows his team has the depth to take the next step in winning a few playoff games and potentially making a deep run in the postseason. For them to do that, they simply have to show up and put in the work, according to Trapp.

“That’s just hunger, on paper it looks good,” Trapp said. “You also have to go prove it, and (show) how hungry we are as a football team … we’ve got to be hungry each and every day, and understand there’s a process of work that goes behind (our success).”