Biggest one yet for Wildcats

CLOVIS — On a chilly Monday afternoon, Clovis High’s football team was getting ready for its season to heat up again.

The Wildcats were coming off a much-appreciated bye week and preparing to jump right back into the fray this weekend, with their biggest game of the season so far. They’re 6-3, but more importantly 3-0 in District 2/5-6A, and they’ll visit La Cueva in Albuquerque this Friday (7 p.m.), facing a Bears team that’s also 3-0 in district.

And it’s the regular-season finale for both teams. So, pretty easy to do the math — Friday’s game is a battle for the district championship.

Sprinkle in the fact that La Cueva (7-2 overall) is a defending state champion, and you’ve got a game that’s tons of fun for all players, coaches and fans involved.

“Yeah, man, it is,” Clovis head football coach Cal Fullerton said. “It’s a neat deal for our kids, they’re excited. To win district and a state championship, that’s two of our goals at the beginning of each year, and that’s something that (La Cueva) did last year. They’ve been in the state (championship) game two years in a row. ... Their kids have been around a lot of winning, in a program that wins all the time, so we’re going to have our work cut out for us. But we’re excited to get the opportunity to be in the position we’re in.”

“It’s definitely the biggest game of the year so far,” said Wildcats junior quarterback Chance Harris, who will make his first start under center since Sept. 27 against Lubbock Cooper. “A state championship’s always the main goal, but yeah, this is one of the biggest games so far, for sure.”

Getting to play it after a bye certainly helps the Wildcats. And they took advantage of their extra prep time last week.

“It was good,” Fullerton said. “We had really good practice days Tuesday and Wednesday, went real quick Thursday because of the (snowy) weather, and then Friday we just lifted ’em and let them have the rest of the weekend off. So kids got rested up that needed it, had some little nagging injuries that healed up. We’re finally about as healthy as we’ve been all year going into this week, so that’s a good thing.”

Among the players who benefited from the bye was Harris. His ankle had been barking since injuring it in the Cooper game, and he was out of service through the Wildcats’ Oct. 11 game against Manzano. He was cleared to play in the Oct. 18 game at Eldorado, but senior backup Devin Gillespie had the team winning, so the coaching staff’s confidence in him coupled with an opportunity to give Harris added rest before the bye week led to Gillespie getting another start. And Gillespie wound up contributing to a 55-21 victory at Eldorado, making him 3-0 as the Wildcats’ No. 1 signal-caller.

But now with two more weeks’ recovery behind him, Harris is ready to reclaim the reins.

“Chance is good to go,” Fullerton said. “We thought him not getting hit and not having to cut on that ankle (against Eldorado) would help out, and it panned out really good, Devin did good for us. Chance is back and we haven’t noticed anything wrong with him at all. He had a good last week and a really good day (Monday). Chance has played some really good football teams this year and has done a good job for us. So it’s exciting to have him back and also exciting to get Devin back out at receiver too.”

“I feel 100 percent, for sure,” Harris said. “Ankle’s good, everything’s good, getting back in shape. I just feel good, all in all.”

Watching from the sidelines throughout October was difficult for Harris.

“Yeah, it was pretty rough,” he said. “I love playing with my brothers, just playing the game. It was pretty rough not being able to suit up with them and go mix it up. I’m back now, so that’s all that matters.”

He gets to dive right into a district championship game against a defending state champ on a four-game winning streak. That likely won’t be easy no matter how well the Wildcats play, but Harris says they’ve got this, thinks it should be a fairly basic approach.

“Really just staying disciplined,” he said. “We’re the better team, but that doesn’t always mean we should win. Just staying disciplined, just holding each other accountable throughout the week and making sure everybody’s doing what they’re supposed to.”

Fullerton also believes Clovis’ key to success is pretty general.

“Same as always,” he said. “Cut down on the turnovers, mental mistakes. We’re going to have to move the football and keep their offense off the field. They’ve got a really good offense, big-time playmaking capabilities. ... Just really good offensively and sound defensively too. Got some good football players back that played last year on their state championship team. So we’re going to have to limit our mistakes offensively and defensively, win the field position battle and win the turnover battle.”

If the Wildcats can accomplish that, there’s a good chance they will return to Clovis as district champions.

“It’d be really cool,” Harris said. “That’d be really cool to bring the district championship back.”

“I think it’d bring a lot of pride back to our school, back to our community,” Fullerton said. “And then hopefully after that, if we did do that, we could get it rolling in the playoffs.”