Buckaroo coach Casey Pearce praises team’s competitiveness, effort as they prepare for opening game on Friday, Aug. 29
By Brant Thurmond/Breckenridge Texan
For many Texans, high school football season is one of the most exciting times of the year, but the wait is over for Breckenridge Buckaroos fans as the 2025 football season gets underway with the first varsity game scheduled to begin at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Aug. 29, in Buckaroo Stadium.
During Meet the Bucks on Aug. 15, the Buckaroo senior football players, volleyball players, cross country team members, cheerleaders and band members presented elementary school kids attending the event with Spirit of the Buckaroo medallions. Click here to see more photos from Meet the Bucks. (Photo by Tony Pilkington/Breckenridge Texan)
The Buckaroos, along with hundreds of other Texas high school athletes, marching band members and cheerleaders, have braved 100-degree temperatures the past three weeks, preparing to represent their communities this fall in hopes of making it to the championship game at AT&T Stadium in December.
The Bucks open the 2025 season at home, hosting the Holliday Eagles, following a dual scrimmage with Fort Worth Castleberry and Gainesville on Aug. 14 and a scrimmage on Aug. 21 against Wall, who is ranked No. 3 in Class 3A Div. II, according to Dave Campbell’s pre-season rankings.
In an interview last week, Buckaroo head football coach Casey Pearce said there were some positives to build on coming out of the Castleberry scrimmage. “Number one, the competitiveness of our kids getting after an opponent. Number two…just the effort level is where it is intended to be.”
With the positives in the Castleberry scrimmage, Pearce said he knew facing Wall in the second scrimmage was going to be the ultimate test.
“I knew they were going to try to shred us with pressure and movement, which, you know, they did. I wasn’t made out to be a liar for sure with the things that I thought were going to happen,” he said. “Those kids responded and played through what we had talked about all week and so coming out at the Wall scrimmage, we got tested.
“Of course, there’s some things to get corrected, but (I) thought our effort and … the fight is where it’s got to be for us to be a competitor,” Pearce said on Friday, Aug. 22. “I told those kids last night after we got off the bus, you better not leave here frustrated, because everything that we said was going to happen happened, and y’all responded the right way. We need to get rolling and we can compete with anybody I feel like. A year ago, I was very concerned about where we were at.”
The 2025 Buckaroo football team is returning after a disappointing season when they missed out on the 2024 Class 3A playoffs and finished the season 1-9 overall, including a 1-4 record in District 3-3A. The Bucks’ lone win came in the final game of the season against San Angelo TLCA.
The road to the playoffs in 2025, again, will not be easy, as the Bucks face some stiff competition.
After this week’s match-up with the Holliday Eagles, the Buckaroos will make a long road trip to Childress on Sept. 5 and then return home for back-to-back home games against area rivals Cisco and Eastland on Sept. 12 and Sept. 19. The final non-district game will be at Tolar on Sept. 26.
District 3-3A competition will be tough, as well.
The Buckaroos will open district play by traveling to Clyde on Oct. 9 before returning home to host Jim Ned on Oct. 17. The following two weeks will be spent traveling as the Bucks play in Comanche on Oct. 24 and Sweetwater on Oct. 31, before returning home to host San Angelo TLCA on Nov. 7 for the final game of the regular season.
Breckenridge returns eight offensive and eight defensive starters from the 2024 season and has 12 lettermen returning, as well.
The Buckaroos have three potential quarterbacks this year, and each of them brings a different dynamic to the team, head coach Casey Pearce said. (Photo by Tony Pilkington/Breckenridge Texan)
They have three potential quarterbacks in senior Joseph Juneau, junior Hudson Woodward and sophomore Cooper Wimberley, with each one bringing a different dynamic to the team.
“Any one of those three guys, if I tell them they’re the guy, they’re going to go out there and play their best,” Pearce said. “I think another quarterback will support whoever it is, and they’re going to be on the field, too, somewhere offensively. So, we’ll see how it shakes out, but I saw some positives out of those three guys. It’s the first time since I’ve been here that we threw drop back passing without running shots on the quarterback (in scrimmages).”
The Buckaroo defense held its own against the Wall Hawks in the scrimmage, but similar to other teams in the state early in the season, tackling is an area for improvement for the Bucks.
“We saw some people try to strike some licks,” Pearce said. “The tackling is not where we want it to be, but I think we have kids trying to do things exactly the way they’ve been coached instead of doing it their own way, and, at times, we have done that around here. But I’m proud of the effort and the attitude about how we’re trying to do things, and we just got to continue to get better.”
The Buckaroos have 17 seniors on the team this season, while a significant number of them have varsity experience.
Joseph Juneau, Jaimie Cruz, Douglas White, Cameron David, Glen Thibodeaux, Omar Mendoza, and Erik Saucedo and Christian Flores are among the key returning skill position players for the Bucks.
The offensive line will be centered mostly around Joacim Fernandez and Brandon Niblett, who are the returners for the Bucks from last season. Carson Couch had some varsity time, as well, but ended up finishing the 2024 season on the junior varsity squad to get some quality playing time and experience.
One thing that will be different for the 2025 Buckaroo football team is calling the play in a huddle before approaching the line of scrimmage to run the play.
“I think this football team needs to be able to grind on the clock, get plays called that will fit our kids and allow us to attack defenses under control,” Pearce said. “But the biggest deal is I’m getting off the wristband and getting into a huddle. What has changed is everybody’s been on the same page. You know, the wristband is very efficient. When kids are able to understand some of the concept pieces, and that’s how we’ve tried to teach this year is through concept rather than being told what to do off a wristband, which is different.
“You know, that’s more of a traditional way of doing it, but I think there’s some merit to it with our kids,” he continued. “I just the think the thing we’re doing right now, offensively and defensively, we thought long and hard about over the spring and into the summer that these were the things we could do, and we could do it well. This group of kids has a lot of retention from of a year ago because of that.”
Breckenridge vs. Holliday
The 2025 season opener will take place at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Aug. 29, at Buckaroo Stadium against the Holliday Eagles.
The Eagles are coming off an 11-3 season that saw them make it to the regional semi-finals.
Holliday returns 16 lettermen and six offensive and six defensive starters in 2025.
Some of the top players to watch include Brayden Hamill, Ty Harrison and Brady Jones.
Hamill rushed for 580 yards and six touchdowns in 2024, while Harrison had 38 receptions for 696 yards and nine touchdowns.
Holliday plays in District 6-3A Div. II with Jacksboro, Wichita Falls City View, Henrietta, Millsap and Valley View.
In 2024, Holliday defeated Breckenridge 64-0.
Cutline, top photo: At Meet the Bucks, the 2025 varsity Buckaroo football team lined up across the center of the field to officially meet their fans for the first time this season. The opening game will be Friday, Aug. 29, against the Holliday Eagles in Buckaroo Stadium. (Photo by Tony Pilkington/Breckenridge Texan)
