The city of Montgomery is bursting at the seams, and the school district is experiencing unprecedented growth.
The Bears went from 4A to 6A in the last realignment, moving from a district with local teams (Waller, Brenham, Magnolia) to a big-time district with the schools from Spring and Klein.
That two-year cycle didn’t bode well for Montgomery, which got put into a somewhat more manageable district for the 2016-18 biennial cycle. Somewhat manageable.
The map of the UIL’s 12-6A district looks, well, out of whack. Travelling to the four Conroe ISD schools looks reasonable, but somehow Lufkin and Beaumont West Brook got lumped in with the Montgomery County schools, making it a seven-team district. West Brook sort of makes sense, sort of. Beaumont is the only 6A school in the Golden Triangle, but has to drive past other 6A districts to get to Conroe and Montgomery. Lufkin is geographically about two hours from any other 6A school, so they got ripped away from their longtime rivals in Tyler and Longview and shipped south.
That said, Montgomery made it back to the playoffs in its newfound district. The Bears started the season with a 3-1 mark in non-district before falling to West Brook on the road for the district opener.
Montgomery won its next three, but then lost the final two district games to The Woodlands and Lufkin, but took the fourth playoff spot. The Bears lost a high-scoring affair to a good Rockwall team, 51-41.
Key Losses
DL Peter Williams, OLB Cameron McLeod, DB Waverly Hampton
Williams and McLeod were first-team all-district selections last year. Hampton was the Return Specialist of the Year for District 12-6A.
Key Returners
QB Jordan Hood, RB Alex Nunn, WR Jody Miller
The Bears return the top player at every skill position on offense as Hood, Nunn and Miller enter their senior year. Hood passed for nearly 1,700 yards and tossed 11 touchdowns while rushing for 510 yards and 13 touchdowns. Ryan Johnson (6-2, 275) will headline the offensive line while just a junior.
The Verdict
The schedule sets up more favorably in 2017 for Montgomery, which will avoid long trips to Beaumont and Killeen, and the only big road trip will be the regular-season finale at Lufkin.
The Bears should be ready with every key weapon returning on offense, and coach John Bolfing should guide this program back to the playoffs again to make it eight times in the last 10 seasons.
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