Last week, Terrell lost its first game of the season. Its new coach, Mike Shields, was ecstatic.
In his first year at the school after seven seasons in Red Oak, Shields got to see his team battle back against one of the District 12-5A favorites, Rockwall-Heath. After falling down 21-0 in the first half, his players didn’t waver, scoring 19 unanswered points and narrowly missing its biggest upset in years.
While the final result was a loss, Shields’ team had won some hard-fought belief in itself.
“I’m not sure if they knew they could play with the big guys yet, until last week,” Shields said. “We fell down early, but they didn’t give up. They kept playing. They’ve had so many years here thinking, ‘Oh, man, the expectations are here, we’re down, we don’t deserve being in this.’ You’ve got to find a way to break that.”
For coaches moving into new and challenging jobs, the biggest hurdles aren’t always found on the field.
Some of the biggest obstacles are between the ears: getting players to believe in their own abilities, find confidence that they can win big games, and have faith in their new coaches to lead them on the right path.
“Every coach is going to be able to come in and install their stuff,” first-year Flower Mound Marcus coach Gerry Stanford said. “But you’ve got to be able to instill some trust between you and your players pretty quickly. That trust has got to be there.”
Both Shields and Stanford have the benefit of knowing what they preach does work. In 2007, Shields’ first year at Red Oak, the school broke a 22-year playoff drought. Prior to coming to Marcus, Stanford led White Oak to playoff wins in back-to-back seasons for the first time in 42 years, making it to the state semifinals in 2013.
With undersized running back Dawonya Tucker, quarterback Damon Moss and defensive tackle Antonio Harris, Terrell (4-1, 1-1 in 12-5A) looks to be in the mix for the district’s final playoff spot. A playoff berth would be a tremendous feat for a team that went 5-25 over the past three seasons, with one district win.
Marcus (4-2, 3-1 in 6-6A) has already doubled its win total from 2013, thanks – in large part – to its talent-laden roster staying healthy.
It’s clear that winning helps builds belief. But for Grapevine’s Randy Jackson and Little Elm’s Kendrick Brown – whose teams have just one win thus far – keeping short-term and long-term goals in balance is an added challenge.
“Once you’re 0-5, it’s psychological warfare to keep those seniors plugged in,” Jackson said.
Jackson put together one of the area’s best-ever turnarounds, turning moribund Mesquite Poteet into a state contender seemingly overnight. After a year at Plano East, he’s now tackling a Grapevine program that’s won four games in the past two seasons.
For Brown, in his first head coaching job after serving as the defensive coordinator at DeSoto, keeping goals on a week-to-week basis has been a priority.
“We want to establish first downs, we want to go win quarters,” Brown said. “A lot of it is about compartmentalizing. Each week is the biggest game of the year.”
Jackson and Brown said the future looks bright, with talent and success in their middle school and sub-varsity programs. They haven’t given up on this current season, though.
“I’m crazy and goofy enough to think our playoff chances are still there,” Brown said. “We’re not out of this picture yet.”
Building blocks
Some new coaches tackling a turnaround
Team | Coach | Current record | 2013 record |
Flower Mound Marcus | Gerry Stanford | 4-2 | 2-9 |
Frisco Liberty | Chris Burtch | 2-3 | 2-8 |
Grapevine | Randy Jackson | 1-5 | 1-9 |
Little Elm | Kendrick Brown | 1-5 | 3-7 |
Terrell | Mike Shields | 4-1 | 3-7 |
Pinkston | Darin Dukes | 2-3 | 3-7 |
On Twitter: @corbettsmithDMN
