Wildcat Football Preview – Pandemic scheduling leaves some saying “Huh”

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Creative scheduling gives Wildcats a possible 8 game regular season with first game set September 11 …

Football season was a go, then it wasn’t. Then it was on again but for “small only ball” – 4A and smaller school districts. The larger districts would just have to wait.

For Kennedale Athletic Director and Head Coach Richard Barrett this has been nothing like he has ever seen in his 42 years of coaching high school sports.

The 4A Wildcats are in their second week of practice and only now have a working schedule. Coach Barrett, sitting down with the seven other head coaches in District 6-4A, hammered out a schedule that includes for Kennedale one non-district game and 7 district games plus the hope of a state playoff.

Midseason district playoff worked into the schedule …

Barrett said then they got creative. They added a playoff for the district championship halfway through the district season. This was done just in case the season was cut short due to pandemic concerns.

To have the playoff game at midseason the coaches divided the district in half with four teams on each side or “pool”. The playoff would happen in week 4 of district play after each team had completed play in their pool.

Seeding for the playoff would have the #1 seeds (or the top team in each pool) playing against each other for the district title and runner-up. The #2 seeds would play each other for 3rd and 4th place and on down the line with #3 seeds and #4 seeds playing each other respectively for the final rankings in the district.

First game – September 11 against Sunnyvale …

As it stands now Kennedale will open the season Friday, September 11 at home against Sunnyvale*. The game time is 7:30. Kennedale then opens District 6-4A play versus FTW Carter-Riverside at Farrington Field on the following Thursday, September 17 at 7:00 pm.

If the season finishes early a district champion will be determined by October 9. If the state playoffs are moved up or the season is paused, the seeding has been determined if or when the playoffs are started.

However, if the season is allowed to finish, district play will continue with teams playing the teams in the other pool.

District 6-4A Teams this year with last year’s district/season records …

  • Pool AKennedale HS (6-0, 7-4), FTW Carter-Riverside HS (New to district 0-6, 0-10), FTW Eastern Hills HS (New to district 3-3, 5-5), FTW Dunbar HS (5-1, 5-6)
  • Pool B – FTW Western Hills HS (0-6, 2-8), FTW Benbrook HS (2-4, 4-6), FTW Diamond Hills HS (1-5, 4-6)and Castleberry HS (4-2, 7-4).

Note: Realignment happened last year with Kennedale remaining in a district dominated by Fort Worth teams. Lake Worth was moved into another district. Eastern Hills and Carter-Riverside in FWISD moved down from 5A and were place in the same district as Kennedale and four other Fort Worth teams. Besides Kennedale, Castleberry High School remained from the prior district. Although completely surrounded by Fort Worth ISD, Castleberry HS is part of Castleberry ISD, separate and apart from Fort Worth ISD.

Kennedale Wildcat Football 2020 Schedule

  • 09/11/2020 Sunnyvale @ Wildcat Stadium 7:30pm; NON-DISTRICT
  • 09/17/2020 FTW Carter-Riverside @ Farrington Field 7:00pm;
  • 09/25/2020 FTW Eastern Hills @ Wildcat Stadium 7:30pm;
  • 10/02/2020 Dunbar @ Handley Field 7:00 pm;
  • 10/09/2020 District Pool Playoff Place & Time TBD;
  • 10/16/2020 TBA; finishing district play if allowed in Pool B
  • 10/22/2020 TBA; finishing district play if allowed in Pool B
  • 10/31/2020 TBA; finishing district play if allowed in Pool B
  • State play-offs – TBA

First game against very good team …

*Sunnyvale is a 4A team in Division II. Last year they won their district 5-0 and had an overall record of 12-1, going 3 deep in the playoffs before losing to Pleasant Grove, the eventual 4A Division 2019 State Champion.

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