DE LEON — Nothing motivates a football team more than the nagging fatigue of losing. And in the case of the De Leon Bearcats, they got more than their fair share of it with an 0-10 mark last year.

De Leon was young. It’s numbers were low and it was in the midst of learning a new system under first-year coach Jacob Marwitz. It couldn’t have been a more challenging scenario and the Bearcats’ record reflected it. 

There is, however, reason for optimism in the DHS camp, spurred on by a new devotion to weight training that has heard the Bearcats clanging and banging metal in the fieldhouse since their last game.