With a young team and a new head coach in Trey Kavanaugh, the Cuthbertson Cavaliers’ football program is moving into new territory for the 2019 season in hopes of living up to their motto of “be the change.”

The Cavaliers finished last year’s season with a record of 3-8 and graduated 26 seniors. The goal, looking forward, Kavanaugh said, is to be competitive while establishing a solid foundation that can be built upon for years to come.

“We’re not coming out here expecting to win a state championship right off the bat,” Kavanaugh said. “We’re trying to compete, we’re trying to stay in games and we’re trying to upset some teams, but the expectation is to start the right way and be able to build on it.”

Building this foundation has been a theme of this year’s Cuthbertson football program since summer workouts began and now, Kavanaugh said, things are starting to click. “We took a lot of pride in our weight room as soon as I got here,” he said. “We hired a weight room coach that came in and really did a great job with them in the off season, focusing on strength development and on speed and agility. With that foundation set,” Kavanaugh said, “we’re starting to turn to the football aspect of it.”

Coach Kavanaugh said that many players will be participating in their first varsity games this year, stepping up, alongside returning varsity players, to fill the shoes of the many seniors that graduated. Being a young team, Kavanaugh said, means that many players are yet to understand just how good they are. He said that their fundamentals-based approach helps to instill an important sense of self-assurance. “We’re trying to instill confidence.” Kavanaugh said. “Once they’re confident players and know what they’re doing, they’re going to do it fast, they’re going to be better.”

Community support for the program, Kavanaugh said, has been tremendous. “The community is excited and I know that our leadership and the school is really excited. We’ve got a great athletic director in Jim Blackwell and a great principal in Jeff Stout and they’ve supported us tremendously with all of the things that we know it takes to build a great program.”

“I’m excited to be here,” Kavanaugh said. “I can’t thank the community enough for opening their doors to me and welcoming me with open arms.”

The first game of the season for Cuthbertson will be held on Friday, August 23 at South Iredell High School. Kick off will be at 7:30 p.m.