#PrepsOn11 Preview: Little Rock Central — LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (THV11) - You'd be hard pressed to find a football program with a more storied history than Little Rock Central. But the Tigers have fallen on tough times. They've missed the postseason every year since 2014. Enter first year head coach, Kent Laster, who has high expectations for a school with such hallowed history.
"Nobody's going to have higher expectations than myself," said Laster. "I believe that I've got pretty high expectations, I'm a pretty competitive person. And I know that's been part of the DNA and history of Central High School."
Laster is tasked with coaching up young kids. The Tigers will start sophomores at both the quarterback and running back positions. Lawson Gunn will be handing off to Sam Franklin, who ran for a pair of touchdowns during the spring game.
With underclassmen at pivotal positions, Laster knows that the Tigers could experience some growing pains this season. But he continues to preach P.R.I.D.E. - passion, respect, integrity, dedication and excellence. He believes those values are at the core of a winning program.
"We want to have tangible success on the field," Laster said. "That's wins, losses, winning seasons, making the playoffs, playing past Thanksgiving and then when we go from there. Those are the big item issues that everybody wants to talk about but really it's all the stuff at the bottom. If we don't do those things, we can't do the other stuff down the road."
Little Rock Central opens the season Tuesday Aug. 21st against West Memphis.