Team to watch: China Spring may have its best squad since 2007

[caption id="attachment_26102" align="aligncenter" width="800"]China_Spring_vs_Cameron-431 Photo by Artie Guerrero[/caption] Mark Bell arrived at China Spring 30 years ago. He coached his program to a Class 3A DII state championship game in 2007. He’s watched college prospects, two of which were his own sons, filter through the program. And he thinks this year’s China Spring  team might be his best. “I knew we were close after last year when we finished 12-2 and both of those losses came to Waco La Vega. They ended up winning state. We knew we could play with the best teams in the state and we felt we could challenge with the guys returning,” Bell said. “The little things make a difference in the big games and we didn’t do a good enough job of executing in those situations. We addressed those things and we’ll see how we do.” A two-point loss to La Vega in the regular season cost China Spring a district title. In the fourth round of the playoffs, La Vega knocked off the Cougars again. Bell’s squad eagerly awaits the rematch with La Vega, but must first get past an emerging Burnet team that cracked our Class 4A Division I rankings with a 5-0 record. “Burnet throws the ball well. That’s a well-coached football team and our guys know what to expect after playing those guys for a few years now. I’d be greatly disappointed in our players if we looked past this game with La Vega scheduled the next week. This district is as tough as it comes and we know we can’t look past anybody,” Bell explained. “We stay focused by knowing how good Burnet is. They’re a complete football team.” District 13-4A DI is one of the deepest in the state. La Vega is the defending state champion. Liberty Hill took La Vega to overtime in the Region IV championship game last season and is a perennial contender with state championship pedigree. Burnet is 5-0 and ranked. Gatesville has a winning record and routinely reaches the playoffs. Lampasas figures to be out of the running, but that still leaves five quality programs competing for a limited number of spots. “My initial thoughts when I saw district realignment was that we were in for a dog fight,” Bell said. “We have three teams undefeated heading into district. We want to play a non-district schedule that prepares us for those tests and I think we did that with opponents like Cameron Yoe, a good Lorena program and Fairfield. All five teams were talented opponents and we grew from the experience.” Dominated might be the better word. China Spring is outscoring opponents 293-66 through five games, including a 63-13 thrashing of state-ranked Cameron Yoe. Bell knew his team was good, but this good? “A couple of the scores have surprised me, but we’ve had some bounces go our way. We know we still need to improve to move forward and accomplish our goals. Our new guys have stepped up quickly and that’s helped us to a fast start,” he said. “Our senior leadership has been great. This is one of the better teams we’ve ever had. We have six or seven legitimate college prospects on the same team, which is a lot for our program. Our job is to play one game at a time and for each player to do their one-eleventh.”

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