Burnet Middle School football beats Brownwood
CAPTION: Burnet Middle School coach Sonny Wilson points something out to Jackson Ray before the seventh-grader takes the field. Staff photo by Jennifer Fierro
The Burnet Middle School football program keeps adding to its successful 2025 campaign.
The eighth-grade A team defeated Brownwood 22-6, while the seventh-grade A team shut out the Lions 35-0, and the seventh-grade B team won 12-6. The eighth-grade B team lost 20-6 all on Oct. 23.
Eighth-grade A quarterback Ace Ingram had a passing touchdown to Jaxson Freeman and a rushing touchdown, while running back Jesus Salazar scored on a running touchdown. The Bulldogs also made both extra point attempts.
The duo of Ingram and Freeman has 14 passing touchdowns this season.
Defensively, Freeman, Colton Reyes and Aaron Tripplet each caught interceptions.
Landon Floyd found Kingston Brown for the eighth-grade B’s only touchdown.
In the seventh-grade B game, Declan Thayer scored both touchdowns, all on the ground: two-yard and 50-yard runs.
“That kid has really grown into a leader with that group and has become a sound footballer,” athletic coordinator Mark Zeigler said.
As pleased as he is with the offensive output, Zeigler has been especially happy with the defense and credits coach Travis Meadows. Meadows serves as the BMS defensive coordinator, who is known for spending his lunches watching film with his players.
“He does a great job for us,” the athletic coordinator said. “He works harder than anyone on the staff. If we score a touchdown a game on defense, I would be betting on us to win that game. They do a good job. He’s one of those guys who will put in the time.”
Meadows said he sees traits in his players that make them successful on that side of the ball.
“We’ve given up very few points over the whole season,” he said. “To be a very good defense, you have to have relentless effort. You can’t let up, not even one play. Then you have to be great tacklers. We really preach good tackle technique. And then there’s a certain mentality. Like the high school has their junkyard mentality, we try to instill that as early as we can. It’s a certain mindset you have to have to be a great defense.”
He credits Jordan Heusinkveld, the program’s overall defensive coordinator, for the junkyard dog mentality.
“That’s his defensive mindset — they’re junkyard dogs — so they get after it every play,” Meadows said. “We match what we do with what they do, we try to keep the terminology the same. And I think the important thing about being in middle school is that we’re building the foundation for the program, and so it’s very much aligned with the high school.”
He attends the game-planning sessions on the weekends with the varsity staff, adding he appreciates those coaches making themselves available to give insight, advice or anything to help the middle school program. He said he takes notes, too, and makes it a point to add some things from that level to his defenses. He also pointed out that head coach Ben Speer, who hails from the defensive side, has been on the sidelines with the middle school players.
“That junkyard dog mentality like I said, that’s the relentless pursuit, the unbelievable amount of effort that they’ve got to put in,” Meadows said. “I try to instill them with the confidence like ‘I know you’re the guys for the job, you’re the one for this moment, go do what you’ve been taught to do, go play our game, and it’ll work out the way that it’s supposed to.’ And that’s one thing we really have prided ourselves on with defenses. We gotta get the ball back to the offense and every turnover, every time they get a turnover on downs or a change of possession, we’re celebrating that on the sideline because it’s a big deal. We’ve scored plenty on defense, but you want to get the ball in your offense’s hands so you can go score because that’s how you win.”
Burnet travels to Salado Thursday, Oct. 30, with the seventh-grade B playing at 4:30 p.m., the seventh-grade A competing at 5:30 p.m., the eighth-grade B competing at 6:30 p.m. and the eighth-grade A competing at 7:30 p.m.
