Two-A-Days: Welsh Greyhounds

WELSH, La. (KPLC) - The Welsh Greyhounds are coming off a strong season finishing with a record of 10-2 but fell to Oak Grove 35-14 in the second round of playoffs.

“Last year we had high expectations and we feel like we fell short,” Head Coach Ronnie Courville said. “We ran into a really good team in Oak Grove and you know that’s somewhere we want to be and losing to a team like that you have an opportunity to see that’s what it takes to get to where want you want to be.”

The Greyhounds return eleven of their starters but many will be playing at different positions to fill what they lost in their graduating class senior Hayden Van Ness will be headed to the backfield in his first season at running back.

“I mean you can always better yourself I’d like to have a lot of yards this season running the ball and I just want to see my teammates succeed,” senior running back Hayden Van Ness said.

Many of the players know what they are capable of and feel optimistic about the 2023 campaign.

“I say one of our strengths is that we hit hard and I can’t think of any weaknesses,” senior defensive lineman, Troy Mallett said.

In Courville’s first season as head coach after serving as the team’s defensive coordinator he’s expecting several players to step up and have big years.

“So offensively, all these guys played defense last year but we’re expecting them to have good years on offense,” Courville said. “And that’s our running back Hayden Van Ness, quarterback Jonavon Begnaud and our tight end LaTroy Pattum, defensively on the d-line Tanner Mallet started for us last year so we expect him to have a good year, and at linebacker Carter Phelps and in the secondary defensively Cameron Bouley.”

The Greyhounds open up their season on the road against Kinder on September 1st.

Welsh 2023 Schedule:

Friday, September 1st: at Kinder
Friday, September 8th: vs. Westlake
Friday, September 14th: at Hamilton Christian
Friday, September 22nd: at Pickering
Friday, September 29th: vs. Loreauville
Thursday, October 5th: vs. Grand Lake
Thursday, October 13th: at DeQuincy
Friday, October 20th: at Lake Arthur
Friday, October 27th: vs. Vinton

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