KEVIN NARRO | Staff Writer
HARLINGEN — For the Marine Military Academy football program, 2019 will be the same song, different verse. The Leathernecks have some pieces back in 2019, but like every year, MMA will have to regroup and adjust.
Fourth-year head coach Ric Medill has improved the program over the last few seasons.
In 2016, MMA went 2-6, followed by a 6-4 campaign 2017 and a 4-5-1 season in 2018.
Despite taking a minor step back last season, Medill is confident in what the Leathernecks have coming back and what they have to build around this fall.
Of the 28 kids on the current roster, 10 of them are returning from last year’s team.
“We are in our first few days of camp and we are still waiting on about 20 kids to come to camp,” Medill said. “A lot of the kids don’t come to camp. They will come on the first day of registration, so we have a bunch of kids coming that we know will be coming.”
One of those returning will be senior quarterback Jack Dalton. The senior QB, who also plays point guard for the basketball team, returns under center after taking over the starting job midway last season, making this his first full year as the starter.
“Jack came in midseason,” Medill said. “He came on at wide receiver for us at first until we moved him to quarterback.”
Teaming up with Dalton will be John Cambo and newly added Mason Nava, who recently played at McAllen High and will bring some experience to MMA.
While the Leathernecks are implementing a new system on both sides of the ball, Medill sees it as a new opportunity for his club with new faces on both offense and defense.
“Here at MMA, every year is different,” the coach said. “We as coaches try and put our kids in the best place we know. Some years, we think we can run the ball and we see what we can work with come August. Sometimes, we get in a group of receivers so we look to throw the ball and open it up. We hope to have a little bit of both so we won’t be one-dimensional. Once we get in the rest of the kids, we will see what we have to work with.”