Livingston Academy Head Football Coach Kaleb Qualls is preparing a young Wildcats roster to build on last season’s early momentum as the program transitions into the 2026 season.
Coach Kaleb Qualls said the team is focused on taking the next step to maintain success throughout the entirety of the region schedule. Qualls said the program is working to instill the art of winning in a roster that features a large group of sophomores following the graduation of 15 seniors.
“I think there’s an art to learning how to win,” Qualls said. “And I think that was good for us last year, especially now that we’ve got a young group coming back, so they kind of see that and there’s a little bit of extra motivation there going into this year.”
Qualls said the team must replace several key contributors including Kaden Wetzel, Drew Goolsby, Brock Cardwell, and Jesse Gentry. Qualls said the coaching staff is also navigating the loss of senior Marius Birdsong, a multi-year starter who suffered a season-ending injury during the spring.
“We’re really excited about the young group that we’ve got,” Qualls said. “So it’s a lot of sophomores, a sophomore-heavy team, and mixed in with some juniors and seniors.”
Qualls said the team identity will be built on standards of consistency and attacking every repetition during practice.
“The standard’s going to be, you know, attack every rep like we said, given no matter the circumstances, adversity, anytime, anywhere, we’ve got to be able to be ready to play,” Qualls said. “So, you know, it’s forever something that you’ve got to build and grow, and so last year I think was a good foundation for us to get it started, but like we said, we’ve got to take the next step and hopefully we can do that this year.”
Qualls said returning starters Mark Ogletree and Frankie Guerra will be expected to provide leadership on both sides of the ball. Qualls said Ogletree is a disruptive force on the defensive line, while Guerra returns to the tight end position after missing the final three games of last season with a knee injury.
“We’ve got a tight group and last year with our first year as a full staff inside the program, you know, we thought we struggled with consistency a little bit,” Qualls said. “So hopefully this year our guys have kind of seen that, like I kind of already talked about with just being a few plays away at times.”
Qualls said the program also looks for leadership from specialists like punter and kicker Coy Smith, who is also a member of the soccer team.
“We just want to get out there and compete, no matter what it is,” Qualls said. “So any opportunity we get to compete we’re going to do that, and so we’ll just take it one one game at a time and hopefully bring our best 48 minutes each night.”
Qualls said the team will continue to evaluate the roster through the summer to determine which players will fill starting roles by the beginning of the season.
