The Calvert Trojans will begin the 2008 football season ranked No. 1 in the state.

They are poised to finish it that way, too, with perhaps their strongest returning squad since the 2002 state championship team.

"We think we have a team that will compete for a state championship," said Calvert coach Coylin Grimes, who directed the state title team. "We're talking about it, not shying away from it. We had 19 kids when we won the state championship, and we have 19 kids out this year."

The Trojans have depth, talent, speed and experience. They had at least some of those attributes in recent years, but playoff nemesis Richland Springs blocked the path to a state crown.

"Richland Springs won [state] three of four years and beat us three times," Grimes said. "Our goal is to get the state championship, but you can bet it will go through Richland Springs, so the first goal is to beat those guys."

In 5-foot-9, 190-pound Travis Walker, the Trojans may have the most complete two-way player in 6-man football. As a junior, Walker rushed for 1,009 yards on only 71 carries and scored 13 touchdowns. A standout defender who plays rover, Walker is Calvert's power hitter on both offense and defense.

"He's pretty much the face of the 6-man world right now, and the only guy we have penciled in to start both ways," said Grimes of Texas Football magazine's 6-man cover boy. "He's our leader in the way he talks and by his attitude. You can tell he wants to win a state championship."

Grimes laughs when talking about Walker's confidence.

"Wendell Green rushed for 2,000 yards last year, and the first thing Travis said was 'He did it all behind me,'" Grimes said. "[Walker] is by far our best blocker. Wendell and our other two backs benefited from him. On defense, we haven't seen a team that can take him on one-on-one. We try, and we can't block him."

Calvert's quick-strike guy is Green, who returns after scoring 41 touchdowns last season. He rushed 123 times for 2,288 yards as the then third-ranked Trojans won their first 12 games before losing to Richland Springs.

Jamarcus Ashley, who worked his way into the starting quarterback spot as a freshman, returns with a season of experience and the potential to join his senior teammates as a game-breaker. Fifteen of his 24 completions went for touchdowns last season, when Ashley passed for 562 yards and did not throw an interception.

"He did a fine job for us all season but got sick before the Richland Springs game," Grimes said. "He had a serious bout of asthma that Wednesday and was unable to play."

Xavier Green is a standout on the Trojans' defensive unit. He had 11 interceptions, returning them for 191 yards and scoring three touchdowns last year. In the past two seasons, he has 20 interceptions.

Senior linebacker Deterrius Pleasant has been a starter since his freshman year and he is coming off a 69-tackle season.

"This is probably the best he has looked in those four years," Grimes said. "He has toned up and slimmed down. He looks great and will be a big plus in the middle."

Darrence Grimes, who filled in for the injured Walker during the Blanket playoff game, is good enough to start for most teams. He may spell Walker defensively in the middle, giving Calvert six different starters each way.

Calvert expectations, already high, were boosted even more by success in the first year they played in the summer six-on-six passing competition.

If the Calvert coach has a worry, it is the Trojans' strength of schedule. Some of the state's perennially strong teams shied away from scheduling Calvert in the regular season. With many regular season games stopped early because of the mercy rule, conditioning and preparation for playing a complete, four-quarter game in the postseason concerns the Trojans' coach, who struggled to fill his schedule.

"There may not be a lot of teams that will present a challenge," Grimes said. "It concerns me that we may play nine or 10 games, and when we go into the playoffs, we haven't had the level of competition we need."