There’s a popular sports saying that states “No one leads on bad teams, coaches lead on good teams, but players lead on excellent teams”. In the arena of small-town sports, coaches are spread extremely thin. You’ll have basketball coaches that tend to also be track coaches, football coaches who double as baseball coaches, and all coaches have to help each other in every other area of the athletic program. They paint fields, arrange schedules, wash uniforms, and set up concessions while still coaching other sports. So at times, players have to be disciplined enough to step up and do what’s needed to be done. The Mansfield SR High Tigers football team hasn’t stepped up at all though. No sir, they’ve downright leaped forward.
After back-to-back losing seasons, the Tigers football program finally broke free in 2022. Boasting 15 seniors on the team, Mansfield finished fourth in the 3A-1 conference with a 4-3 conference record and a 7-3 overall regular season record. The feat earned the Tigers a State Playoff berth for the first time since the 2019 season and just the tenth State Playoff appearance in school history. Great times, right? Well having 15 seniors to lead a team one season means the program will be short that exact amount the following year. That means there’s a lot of experience and skill to replace. Although Mansfield may not be able to rejuvenate that many seniors each and every season, they are already proving that they can still replicate the work it takes to remain successful.
Many players spent the winter in basketball and the springtime playing baseball and track. Those that are strictly football players though have hit the weight room hard and heavy. Mansfield’s offseason players have taken it upon themselves to lead each other into the future by making sure they hold each other accountable. If you were a fly on the wall, you’d see players pumping others up to get one more rep in or push that added ten pounds up. Upcoming and new players are asking juniors and seniors about what to expect in SR High football and how to prepare for it. New techniques and exercises to improve their overall team speed and strength are being taken seriously. Even those currently in track and baseball are coming in early in the mornings to get their lifting sets in for football.
The Tigers will see another large group moving up as they’re expected to be in the double digits in the sophomore department. Numbers are one thing, but youth and inexperience can cause chaos at times. Luckily, the upcoming sophomores have proper leadership through example in the higher ranks of the program. From how to lift properly, act maturely, and what they need to do to improve, the Tigers juniors and seniors are taking them under their wings. This big-brother mentality of the team has become extremely evident in the locker room. One of Mansfield’s juniors gave a coach’s dream answer in front of his younger counterparts when he was asked “What position do you think you’ll be playing next year”? Without mulling around to find the politically correct answer, he quickly and simply stated “I really don’t care what position I’m put at. Wherever the team needs me the most, that’s where I’ll be”. And that ladies and gentlemen is how you complete a proper microphone drop.
While losing a ton of skills, experience, and leadership is rough for any program, the Tigers are proving that they can overcome the graduation cuts. “Our kids seem very excited about the upcoming season”, said Head Coach Tim Cothran. “They have been working extremely hard to become complete athletes and are getting much stronger in the process”. Mansfield’s offseason program has developed a trust between the coaches and players alike that is creating something special. It’s not merely a coach-led program nor a player lead program. Instead, it is slowly becoming a top to bottom overall team-led program. Some may think that Mansfield’s 2022 season was a one-and-done, but the players in the Tigers see it as just the first step of many many more successful years to come.
