Del City Team Preview
In this article:
Get 25% off your subscription by entering Knight25 in the coupon code area. Enjoy! It’s the month of July and that means it’s preview time! Throughout the month of July, we are publishing 100 team previews to get you ready…
Access all of Prep Redzone
Continue reading this article and more.
Continue ReadingGet 25% off your subscription by entering Knight25 in the coupon code area. Enjoy!
It’s the month of July and that means it’s preview time! Throughout the month of July, we are publishing 100 team previews to get you ready for the 2022 season. This is something that began last year and has become even bigger and better this year. We’re looking forward to diving deep into the top teams across the state. From defending champs, to top contenders and dark horses, we’ll have complete coverage every single day with new teams from Class 6A down to A. In this post, we take a look at the Del City Eagles. They move down to Class 5A this season and are looking to make a run to the state championship.
Del City Eagles (5A Preseason Ranking: #7)
Del City will be playing in Class 5A for at least the next two seasons after dropping down from 6A-2 a season ago. And we say “for at least” because Del City is a program that is always on the border of being a 5A and a 6A-2 school in any given year based on their enrollment. They very well could move back up during the next redistricting shuffle. But for now, the focus is on Class 5A. It was a good year for them last year in their final (for now) year in 6A-2 as they captured the district championship. The Eagles would drop their season opener to Booker T Washington in another close encounter and would bounce back in a big way. They would win their next nine games, including three overtime victories over Bishop McGuinness, Deer Creek and Putnam City North. However, despite capturing the district championship, the Eagles would get stunned by Sand Springs at home in the quarterfinals of the 6A-2 playoffs and their season would end abruptly.
Now that they move down to Class 5A, they’ll find themselves hitting the highway quite a bit this fall as they’re in a district that primarily consists of Tulsa-area schools and programs. But they have the same goal in mind and that’s to win that district title and then go after a state championship. They’ll bring back six starters on the offensive side of the ball but the biggest losses on that side are at the quarterback and running back positions. They had an excellent running game a year ago and they’ll try to recreate that with new faces, to go along with the six returning starters. While the offense is getting going, they’ll lean on the strength of their team, which is the defensive side of the ball. That side brings back seven starters and they have multiple guys who will not only be playing D1 college football but at the Power 5 level.
2021 Results (9-2 Record – Lost In 6A-2 Quarterfinals)
Sept. 3 – Lost To Booker T Washington 39-26
Sept. 10 – Beat Carl Albert 52-20
Sept. 17 – Beat Bishop McGuinness 27-21 (OT)
Sept. 24 – Beat Northwest Classen 62-0
Sept. 30 – Beat Stillwater 30-7
Oct. 8 – Beat Midwest City 27-6
Oct. 14 – Beat Putnam City North 20-14 (OT)
Oct. 22 – Beat Deer Creek 35-28 (OT)
Oct. 28 – Beat US Grant 59-7
Nov. 4 – Beat Lawton 62-35
Quarterfinal – Lost To Sand Springs 21-17
Key Losses To Graduation
Darius Hampton – Defensive Lineman
Ethan Lawrence – Running Back
Gabe Rios – Offensive Lineman
Jayson Smith – Linebacker
Kyron Lindsey – Offensive Lineman
Quadre Galbreath – Offensive Lineman
Virgil Yates – Quarterback
Players To Watch
Jaedon Foreman
Jaedon
Foreman
6'4" | DL
Del City | 2023
State
OK
– 2023 Defensive Lineman
Del City has one of the better defensive units in Oklahoma as they go into the 2022 football season. They have legitimate talent at all three levels of their defense and leading the way up front is 2023 defensive lineman
Jaedon Foreman
Jaedon
Foreman
6'4" | DL
Del City | 2023
State
OK
. The senior standout is one of two defensive starters that is already committed to a Big 12 program as he has been an OSU commit for a while now. Foreman has looked like a next level player since the end of his freshman season and we’re looking forward to seeing what he does this fall as a senior. He’s an absolute nightmare coming off the edge and can beat his opponent with speed or simply overpowering him.
Kanijal Thomas
Kanijal
Thomas
6'1" | DB
Del City | 2023
State
OK
– 2023 Defensive Back
The other part of that Power 5 duo is 2023 defensive back
Kanijal Thomas
Kanijal
Thomas
6'1" | DB
Del City | 2023
State
OK
. Like Foreman, Thomas has been considered one of the top 2023 prospects in the state since his freshman season. Recently over the summer, Thomas committed to Kansas State after visiting. We got to see Thomas quite a bit during the offseason before his junior year while he played 7v7 for Sooner 7 and he was routinely one of the top cornerbacks every time we saw him. Thomas expects to be one of the top defensive backs in the state once again this fall and lock down the opponent’s top wide receiver. He should be one of the top players in Class 5A this season.
Tango McCauley
Tango
McCauley
6'2" | 245 lbs | LB
Del City | 2023
State
OK
– 2023 Linebacker
We mentioned Del City having next level talent at all three levels of their defense and that includes the linebacker position. 2023 linebacker
Tango McCauley
Tango
McCauley
6'2" | 245 lbs | LB
Del City | 2023
State
OK
has been a standout for John Marshall over the last two seasons but he’ll be spending his senior year at Del City and he immediately gives the Eagles a boost on that side of the ball. They were losing one of their best players in Jayson Smith from the linebacker group so to be able to plug McCauley into that position will be a big help to the Eagle defense. McCauley is comfortable with lining up on the line of scrimmage or stepping back into more of a linebacker role.
More Names To Know
Aaron Carter – 2024 Linebacker
Braelon Adamah
Braelon
Adamah
5'9" | 155 lbs | DB
Del City | 2024
State
OK
– 2024 Defensive Back
Dakeln Godwin – 2023 Athlete
Jaelen Owens – 2023 Offensive/Defensive Lineman
Jaylin Sweet – 2023 Wide Receiver/Defensive Back
Rayvon Swindall – 2023 Offensive/Defensive Lineman
Villiami Lewis – 2024 Offensive/Defensive Lineman
2022 Schedule/Games To Circle
Aug. 26 – Choctaw
Sept. 2 – AT Booker T Washington
– Despite moving down to Class 5A, the Eagles are still playing 6A-2 programs early on in the non-district schedule. After hosting Choctaw, they’ll face another top three team from 6A-2 when they travel to Tulsa to take on Booker T Washington. This will be the first of three trips to Tulsa to face TPS programs for Del City this season. And it’s a renewal of a really good “east versus west” rivalry between the Eagles and the Hornets. These two teams have played some very competitive games and games that have gone down to the wire. Both expect to contend for a state championship this fall and a win will give them a ton of momentum.
Sept. 9 – AT Midwest City
Sept. 23 – AT East Central
Sept. 30 – McAlester
– Now that Del City is down in Class 5A and in what is considered an “east side” district, these kinds of match-ups are going to start happening. The Eagles will be welcoming a McAlester team that made it to the 5A title game a year ago into Del City in week five. A big match-up within this game will be the Del City defense, specifically the front seven, going against McAlester’s star running back and reigning Prep Redzone Oklahoma Player Of The Year in
Erik McCarty
Erik
McCarty
6'2" | 175 lbs | DB
McAlester | 2023
State
OK
. It’s only week five but if Del City is able to knock off the Buffaloes at home, they will be putting themselves in a great position within the district moving forward.
Oct. 7 – Sapulpa
Oct. 14 – AT Memorial
Oct. 21 – Glenpool
Oct. 28 – Coweta
– It’s hard to project all the way to week nine but it’s somewhat likely that if Del City is unbeaten in district play and they get a win at home against Coweta, they’ll lock up the district championship for the second straight year. Coweta and McAlester are the top two teams in the district going into the season and the Eagles are benefitting this season with getting both of them at home this season. The Tigers are another top five team within 5A football coming into the year and they’re very experienced. Del City will recognize their quarterback
Carson Laverty
Carson
Laverty
6'1" | 185 lbs | QB
Coweta | 2023
State
OK
after he started for former Del City district opponent Putnam City North over the last two years.
Nov. 4 – AT Durant
Notable
Del City lost a few playmakers to graduation, especially on the defensive side of the ball. But one playmaker that has not graduated but will not be suiting up for Del City this fall is 2024 defensive lineman David Stone. This standout Del City product has been the top 2024 prospect in the state’s class really since we started doing the 2024 rankings. But he announced earlier this year that he was going to be transferring to the IMG Academy in Florida, which is one of the top football programs in the country when it comes to producing top athletes. Prospects from all over the country go to Florida to play for the IMG Academy, and they play a national schedule against some of the other top high school programs in the country. While we aren’t ruling out Stone returning to Del City at some point, it looks like he’ll be playing in Florida this fall.
Championship History
1 State Championship
1976 – Beat Putnam City West 27-13