By BRAD KEITH
TheFlashToday.com
DE LEON (October 9, 2017) — The resurgence of De Leon boys sports is so often tied to the coming of age of Kevin Yeager, currently a junior, who stars at quarterback and free safety for the Bearcats.
All of De Leon knew what they had coming with the son of athletic director and head football coach David Yeager. And if you want to take everything into consideration going back to his freshman year when head coaches voted him district offensive player of the year in football, then it would be hard to argue anyone has contributed directly to the recent De Leon successes more than Yeager the younger.
This is especially true in football and basketball, though he is also a very good all-around baseball player, one of several for the Bearcats, who reached the Region I-2A Division I semifinals last season.
Few outside De Leon know Yeager played a significant role in De Leon reaching state in boys golf last year, or that he is also no slouch in track and field.
But to understand how far De Leon has come in football – and I’m just talking since the state quarterfinals last December – one must see around Yeager and notice that while he has indeed grown taller, stronger and more experienced, the difference between last fall and now is the entire class of talented juniors that have all come of age.
It’s not as if the 2016 team didn’t have other pieces besides Yeager, and its not like the 2017 Bearcats have improvements all around and a lesser Yeager.
It’s the cumulative result of Yeager continuing to follow a trajectory that was already so clearly aimed in an upward direction, and so many others jumping aboard that same pathway to success.
The Bearcats lost 41-14 in a largely one-sided 2016 quarterfinal against Crawford, which went on to play Refugio within three points in the state final. Two weeks ago, De Leon scored 35 of the final 41 points in a 38-18 victory at Crawford, which had not lost at home since 2009.
That win and a subsequent 27-14 victory Hico when the Bearcats scored the final 20 points, make them the hands down favorites to win the district title in 10-2A Division I.
The Bearcats last year were most notably Yeager and so they were good.
This De Leon team is better than good, they’re great, and perhaps even elite. And the reason is everyone not named Kevin Yeager.
He’s remained the constant, but what has changed about this team is the maturity of others around the quarterback. And, of course, some good fortune in move-in Anthony Rangel, the only 11-man running back in this area to have already surpassed the 1,000 yard mark.
Rangel has rushed for 1,016 rushing yards, including 207 of them on just nine carries to lead the comeback in Crawford after the Pirates jumped out to a 12-3 advantage.
And Yeager didn’t have to be the star in the win over Hico, either, because Rangel joined Calvin Martin in taking center stage.
Rangel put the Bearcats up for good with a 55-yard touchdown run in the opening moments of the fourth quarter, then Martin made sure the Tigers would not answer by intercepting a pass to set up his own TD catch from Yeager – see, he is still involved, no worries – that finished the scoring.
If there was any work left to do it was handled by the dynamic Chris Cox, who grabbed the Bearcats’ second fourth quarter interception to allow the home team to runout the clock on its first 6-0 start since 2008.
De Leon is – pound-for-pound – the best 11-man team around this neck of the woods not because of what they already had with Yeager, but because of what they have with Rangel and a group of now juniors who have another year under their belts and worked out together at 6 a.m. throughout much of the summer.
Rangel makes them balanced – 434.2 total yards per game with 227 on the ground and 207.2 through the air. He and Yeager, along with Cox moving from running back to receiver opposite of Martin, also make them loaded.
And the defense is also a year more mature. Cross Plains was the only team to score among the first four De Leon opponents, and two of the Buffaloes three touchdowns came after the Bearcats called off the dogs, or cats, so to speak. Crawford scored just 18 and Hico 14, with neither scoring in the fourth quarter.
Rangel is averaging 14.5 yards on his 70 carries, and four players have at least a dozen receptions. Clay Martin leads in catches with 30 for 349 yards, while Orson Sylva is the receiving yardage leader with 365 on 26 catches.
Kevin Yeager is hitting those receivers, and he is still quite the stalwart in the back of the defense, too, where his high game IQ makes him especially problematic for opposing quarterbacks.
De Leon was very good because Yeager was terrific.
The Bearcats are a regional and perhaps state title contender because now, several other De Leon juniors are terrific, too.
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