Wesson rising senior Trey Glasper and rising junior Jim Guess both remember how last football season ended.

After starting the 2016 season 4-2, the Cobras dropped their final five games of the season, all to district opponents, to end the season 4-7 and missed the playoffs. Over the last five games of the season, the Wesson defense gave up 268 points.

That bad feeling sticks in the minds of Glasper and Guess as the captains of the Cobras.

With Glasper at linebacker and Guess leading the secondary at the safety position, the two have made every improvement possible to turn the defense around to finish strong in 2017.

“One of our coaches got a picture of the scoreboard from our last game and we look at it every day to make sure that won’t happen anymore,” Glasper said. “We’re going to come back from that and I think we’re going to have a good season.”

The final score of that game read an 80-47 defeat to district opponent Wilkinson County, capping off a five-game losing streak to end the season.

Wesson scored points at will, but when the team built a lead, they just couldn’t close the games out.

“As soon as we started to score points, we would just fall off and give up big plays,” Guess said. “We had most teams at half and we just couldn’t stay in it. It was more of an attitude thing I guess.”

Attitude is something Wesson head coach Jeremy Loy has been preaching to his team all offseason and it starts with Guess and Glasper on the defensive front.

“They’re both leaders in our locker room and in our fieldhouse,” Loy said. “We’ve used how last year ended as motivation. We gave up way too many points and those guys know that. Jim and Trey will help all the guys get better because of last season.”

At the safety position, Guess led the team with 74 total tackles, 66 of them solo tackles and eight tackles for a loss.

Guess has a lanky build  to go along with his calm demeanor, but his play on the field is tenacious and he leads by example on and off the field on defense.

“Jim has high effort, very coachable, and he’s just a good ball player,” Loy said. “He plays bigger than he really is and he makes plays for us. We really need him to step up and get better than what he was last year for us.”

“I wanted to work harder for this season to help turn us around,” Guess said. “I want to be better than I was last year and continue to make strides as a player.”

Not only is Glasper a leader on defense at the linebacker position, but was also the second leading rusher on offense last season at running back. Glasper ran for 455 yards on 67 carries with four touchdowns on the season.

Glasper can do it all on both sides of the ball. Combining that with his leadership, the rising senior will be called upon to lead the younger players to a better result.

“Trey does a lot of things for us with playing on both sides of the ball,” Loy said. “He’s a big part of our whole team and he’s a fantastic leader.”

Glasper and Guess both want to see a different attitude in the team when the 2017 season starts. That approach can carry the team a long way as the duo will look to improve the defense and take the Cobras to the playoffs.

“We have to have that family atmosphere and hold each other accountable,” Glasper said. “If you want to protect your family, you’ll have to give your all every time. You have to be 100 percent in for each other. We’ll do it together.”