The Royal Falcons have been working hard this year preparing themselves for the upcoming season.

            “We had a good off-season, strength and conditioning program, we have more players coming in and we had a good football camp,” said Royal head coach Theadis Reagins. “These are the types of things that are going to take us to the next level.”

            The team has been hard at work this summer trying to better themselves and find recruits because of the seniors that graduated from the team.

            “One of the benefits of this program is being able to have these guys for 6 weeks in the summertime, lifting weights, and doing the strength and conditioning camp,” Reagins said. “That was a huge benefit, having those 6 weeks available to us this year.”

            The team lost 9 varsity players due to graduation, but they have 15 returning players with 7 of them being defensive starters.

“I think the defense can be really strong because of the experience that they have on that side of the ball, so I think the defense can be the strongest point of the team,” Reagins said.

            While the past seniors' leadership will be missed, many players have stepped up this season, seniors Kobe Lewis and AJ Ball, as well as the non-seniors Deshawn Adams and Derrick Noel have led the way.

            “We have a lot of leaders in our team, a lot of hard workers, I think we’re going to be good this season,” Lewis said.

            Getting the team ready for playing means assigning the players their positions, and there is a quarterback battle brewing between Lewis and Noel.

            “It’s still early so we don’t know, we haven’t played a game yet so we can’t say exactly who is going to be the starting quarterback,” Reagins said.

            The team record from last season was 2-5 with 1-4 in district play, and the last playoff appearance was in 2017 with a bi-district appearance, and the team is ready to get back into it.

            “The thing that it takes to be successful in any district regardless of the competition is teams having the discipline, structure, commitment, regardless of what district you’re in is the commitment that it takes to be good,” Reagins said.

The Royal High School students have been working hard, and Noel, a sophomore, has said that he sees everyone getting better and winning more games because of it.

The Falcons will travel to Hempstead on Aug. 27 for the team's first game of the season, and will face Sealy on Oct. 8 in their district opener.

“I expect our guys to just go out every week, week-in and week-out and just compete to the best of their abilities, trust the training that the coaches have given them throughout the week, be better prepared, and be mentally focused for the rest of the season,” Reagins said.