By CURTIS ROCKWELL/Sports Director

HURLEY — East Central experienced an unusual feeling on the football field last season.
That’s because the Hornets missed out on the state playoffs for the first time in 10 years.
This season, as East Central head coach Sam Huff enters his third year in charge, the Hornets hope to start yet another streak of postseason appearances thanks to a strong senior class that numbers around 20 players.
“It makes a ton of difference,” Huff said, in a recent interview. “With this group we have a good mixture of young players that got reps last year and are experienced and we need them to step up and be leaders on Fridays.”
East Central struggled home with a 3-7 record last season, its worst mark since going 1-10 in 2013 which was also the last time the Hornets didn’t qualify for the state playoffs.
But the experience the squad has returning has Huff and the Hornets looking for better days this season. East Central gets five starters back on offense and six on defense.

Offensively, tailback Ben Myrick returns for his senior season after rushing for almost 1,000 yards last year and 14 touchdowns. He recorded three games where he eclipsed the 100-yard rushing mark.
Quarterback Mason Prouty paced ECHS in passing yardage last season as a sophomore with almost 500 yards.
Defensively, big things are expected from seniors Matt Combs at safety and Gaines Huff at linebacker for the Hornets this season.
Huff’s squad started last year off at 2-3 and then headed into its open date. However, East Central struggled down the stretch as four losses followed in Region 4-5A before the Hornets wrapped up the season with an exciting 21-20 home win over Stone.

“As soon as the season was over these guys started working hard,” Huff concluded. “We addressed the things we stunk at last year. one of them for example was turnovers. We turned the ball over way too much and that’s something we’ve focused on especially early on in camp. I’m excited about it and I hope we can transfer what we’ve been working on to Fridays.”