MERKEL — Sometimes football is all about luck. This can be particularly true during the offseason, when key players quit a team or join a team.  Or when important families move away to other schools, or if they move into your district. 

Entering the 2024 season, perhaps no area program was more in need of a little offseason luck than the Merkel Badgers, 

No area team is shorter on returning help than MHS, which has just four starters back on both sides of the ball among eight returning lettermen from last year’s 6-4 club. And many of the existing vacancies will be filled by players promoted from an 0-10 JV squad. 

As luck would have it, however, the Badgers have been on the receiving end of three move-ins who are currently showing the potential to be impact players — Abilene Cooper move-in CJ Guadarrama (RB-LB), Brownwood move-in Waylon Harrington (LB) and Winters move-in Brazos Grun (OL-DL).