It’s been 15 years for Clint Hartman.
Midland Lee’s head coach was on the Odessa High staff quite a while ago, and it wasn’t a particularly long stint. He just coached the Bronchos secondary as an assistant from 2001-02, before heading off.
But in that time, that while ago, the Bronchos left an impression on him.
“Remember, I coached over there,” Hartman said this week, speaking over the phone amid the Rebels’ week of preparation for the current Bronchos team.
“I know everything about those kids in West Odessa — and how tough they are, and how hard they’re going to play Friday night.”
Hartman expects that tough fight from the Bronchos when Midland Lee hosts Odessa High at 7:30 p.m. Friday at Grande Communications Stadium in Midland.
Midland Lee enters 6-1 overall and 2-1 in District 2-6A, with eyes set on securing a third league win and taking another big step in playoff positioning, but despite how the records compare, the Rebels know it won’t be easy against a game Odessa High squad focused on earning its first district win.
“Nobody’s pushed them around,” Hartman said.
Indeed, the Bronchos, despite a 2-4 record and an 0-2 mark in district, have proven competitive through two losses against two of the best teams in the district in Amarillo Tascosa and San Angelo Central.
The only thing is, things aren’t going to get any easier this Friday when Odessa High faces Midland Lee.
Once again, the Bronchos will be lining up across from one of the league’s best.
“They’re one of the best teams in our district,” Odessa High head coach Danny Servance put it simply earlier this week.
Through seven games, the Rebels are averaging 579 yards a game and 45.6 points, while the defense gives up 390 a game and 27.7 points — and they rocketed to a 6-0 start to the season before suffering their first loss last week against undefeated Central.
“They’re a good football team — very physical,” Servance said. “They’re coached well.
“Down in the trenches, they try to be more physical than the next guy, and they do a good job of it.”
Quarterback Colby Standard leads the Rebels offense behind center, having thrown for 1,340 yards and 11 touchdowns on 82-of-135 passing, while rushing 721 more yards and six more touchdowns on 85 carries.
Beside him in the backfield, running back Josh Traylor has spearheaded Midland Lee’s rushing so far, rolling up 1,097 yards and 16 touchdowns on 103 carries, but Avery Akbar has also rushed for 718 yards and nine scores on 79 rushes, and he stepped in to rush for 98 yards last week against Central when Traylor took just three carries.
“They get after you and run the ball extremely hard,” Servance said of those players who lead the Rebels’ run-first spread.
“They don’t let the first tackler bring them down most of the time, so you’ve got to do a great job of tackling or they break tackles and they’ve got the speed where they can go the distance.”
Grant Brown, with 478 receiving yards, and Sheldon Bass, with 334 more, are Standard’s top targets at receiver. Linebacker Isaiah Nunez leads the Rebels defense with 72 tackles.
But while the Rebels have rolled to big season so far, already doubling last year’s win total for the program after a 3-7 2016, and picking up a 49-14 win over archrival Midland High in the district opener before earning a big 56-42 win over Tascosa the next week, Midland Lee expects another big challenge from Odessa High — a team trying to see the fruits of its own turnaround efforts much like Midland Lee.
“Odessa High is much-improved, and I think it says a lot about the kids from last year, and also the coaches from last year,” Hartman said. “This year, they’ve got the kids to play really hard, both on offense and defense.
“We expect those guys to play really hard, and we expect for us, if we want the game, we’re going to have to do things right and play really hard.”
That’s what Hartman expects — and what spectators should see — when the Rebels and Bronchos renew their rivalry Friday night in Grande.
“We expect a hard-fought 2-6A game, like always,” Hartman said.
