AURORA | A new prep football season begins with everybody at 0-0.
For Aurora Central coach Taylor Calvert, that’s a good thing, considering he has a brand new slate to start with after back-to-back 2-8 seasons.
Buoyed by the offseason work of his team — which dropped from Class 5A to 4A in the offseason — Calvert hopes a Zero Week contest against Aurora Public Schools rival Hinkley is what his team needs as a springboard to a better finish. Aurora Central and Hinkley meet at 6 p.m. Friday at APS Stadium in the first contest of the 2014 season for any Aurora schools.
“I hate that it’s Zero Week, but that was the only way we were going to get the game in,” Calvert said. “That’s been the motivation since about April, when the schedule came out and we knew we were going to play Hinkley the first game. …We’re fired up.”
The Trojans are determined to avenge a 53-6 loss to the Thunderbirds last season.
Hinkley — which finished 5-5 and made a 5A state playoff appearance last season — is under the new direction of coach Robert O’Brien, a former assistant who got the job after Jaron Cohen departed for Ponderosa.
Rounding out an abbreviated Zero Week schedule for Aurora teams is Saturday night’s contest between Overland and Smoky Hill, scheduled for 6 p.m. at Stutler Bowl.
The winner of the meeting between the former Centennial League rivals — the latest round of realignment moved Smoky Hill out of the league and brought Valor Christian into it for football only — gets custody of the new Wagon Wheel traveling trophy that debuts this season. The wooden wheel features plates with the scores of all 32 previous meetings.
Coach Seth Replogle’s Trailblazers have won the last two meetings between the teams by a combined total of 81-35.
Smoky Hill (2-8 in 2013) is set to play its first game under interim head coach Preston Davis, who took over after Justin Hoffman was fired on the eve of the team’s first practice.
Courtney Oakes is Sports Editor of the Aurora Sentinel. Reach him at 303-750-7555 or sports@aurorasentinel.com. Twitter: @aurorasports. Facebook: Aurora Prep Sentinel
