The Bryan Viking roots run deep for Mason Rice.
As the son of a Bryan coach, the linebacker remembers going to games, watching practices and hanging out around the fieldhouse. Since Rice was about 3, his dad Matt Rice has been the team’s safeties and cornerbacks coach.
And Rice remembers looking up to guys like former Bryan cornerback V.J. Banks, safety Gus Hancock, running back Kee Kee Johnson, punter Tyler Slaydon and the list goes on.
“I mean honestly I tried to learn all their names and be friendly with all of them,” Rice said. “Some of the names are just getting away from me.”
Now as a senior, Rice is influencing the next generation just like the previous Vikings did for him.
“It’s real neat cause from the time like I said I was 6 years old, I always looked up to the guys on varsity,” Rice said. “Man, these guys are so cool. Now getting to be one of those and even thinking about like all the kids ... I mean we high five all kinds of middle school and elementary school aged kids coming out at halftime and out at the fieldhouse.
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“It’s just real cool to think about how influential you are to other people and stuff like that. I know we went to some of the elementary schools past couple games and helped kids out of their cars and greet them in the morning. It’s just cool to know you have an impact on kids and influence kids in good ways.”
As a junior, Rice got called up to varsity but broke his thumb in the second quarter of the team’s opener last season. The broken thumb sidelined him for four weeks. When he returned, he said he wasn’t able to play at the level he would’ve liked because he had missed so much time.
This season, he’s making up for the lost time as he has 31 tackles and two interceptions, one of which he returned for a touchdown.
“I have a lot of fun playing football,” Rice said. “I see it as a real fun game, and I think it’s real cool to go through the week-to-week process, because I didn’t have that last year. You’re not sore every Friday night, and then you wake up and have to do it all again. I think part of getting to do that for six games in a row now is pretty fun. It’s just part of the whole football experience. I feel a lot more involved this year for sure.”
Rice will try to help Bryan (3-2, 0-1) earn its first District 12-6A win of the season when the Vikings play at Copperas Cove (2-2, 0-0) at 7:30 p.m. Friday.
Rice has played all over the defense starting at safety in middle school before switching to cornerback as a freshman. As a sophomore, he started inching closer to the line of scrimmage as an outside linebacker/safety hybrid.
“I was never opposed to it,” Rice said of the move to linebacker. “I’m always real open to whatever the coaches want. I think it was the coaches’ decision to move me to the outside linebacker position sophomore year, but I like the idea of it.”
Rice began growing into the position as a sophomore, and he credits two of his coaches for helping him develop. His dad is one of them for instilling a hard work mentality on and off the field, and the other is coach Tarin Mitchell when he was at Bryan.
“He pushed a lot of kids. He brought a lot of energy, pretty similar to how [head coach Ricky Tullos] has,” Rice said. “He just hyped us all up, and we’d all stay after practice and go work together. And that was probably one of the biggest growing seasons that I’ve had since I started playing in seventh grade.”
The movement along the defense hasn’t stopped this year as the versatile defender has played both outside and inside linebacker. Rice spent two games this season at inside linebacker and the other three at outside linebacker.
“At the end of the day, he’s always had a phenomenal work ethic, just a phenomenal kid and student-athlete on and off the field,” Tullos said. “I just think his level of play continues to elevate, just him getting more familiar with what we’re trying to accomplish. He understands the defense. He understands what we’re trying to do, and I think anytime you’re doing less thinking because you’re used to it and you’re comfortable, your game’s going to elevate. I think that’s what we’re seeing with Mason.”