CHARLESTON (KFSM) - Winning isn't exciting in Charleston on Friday nights. It's expected.
If you want to find the last time the Tigers lost more games in a season than they won, you'd have to go back to the mid-1980s. First year coach Ricky May knows all about the tradition of the program and now he's tasked with keeping it going.
"We’ve got to be able to run the football," May said. "We’ve had a little trouble with that in the past. We’re hoping to make that a little better. Our offensive line, we’ve kind of challenged them this year to make it a point to be able to run the ball."
Most towns would be content with a 6-5 season but the record Charleston posted in 2018 hasn't sat well in Chucktown. The return of 15 starters will help as the Tigers try to prevent that mark from becoming a trend but an always loaded conference won't make things easy.
"Like I said, leadership," Charleston guard Jonathan Williams said. "The ones, we’ve got to have that confidence to get up there and get going."
"It’s going to be tough," May added. "I could see the conference winner having one loss and all five playoff spots are going to be are going to be quality teams."
The Tigers have a tough non-conference schedule to start the year as they take on a pair of 4A schools, Dardanelle and Ozark, who are ranked in the top 12 to start the season then Charleston has critical conference games against Greenland, Cedarville and Mansfield.
