Woodville Eagles
Fentress believes program on right track
By JIMMY GALVAN Managing Editor

Newsboy photo/Jimmy Galvan THE 2007 WOODVILLE EAGLE VARSITY FOOTBALL SQUAD

It may not have turned out as they wanted it to finish but the Woodville Eagles came away with a successful 2007 campaign.

"We got better overall as a program this year," said Woodville Head Football Coach Steve Fentress. "We learned a few lessons this year on what we can and cannot do to prepare for a football game.

"They saw when we don't prepare for a football game and what happens when we do prepare for a game," Fentress said. "In that aspect of the game, we made great strides this year."

Overall, Fentress rates the 2007 season as an improvement but still left an unsatisfied feeling on the squad.

"We improved from the beginning of the year but by no means did we finish where we needed to be," Fentress said.

Woodville entered the final three games needing one victory to advance to the playoffs. But those final three games came against Corrigan-Camden, Newton and Hemphill, the eventual three-playoff teams from District 23-2A.

"The team that is most disciplined and the team that takes care of the ball wins the game," Fentress said. "Discipline on the field and discipline in the program are two different things and in those last three games, we were undisciplined. It wasn't a behavior thing but we just didn't take care of the ball or had stupid penalties."

Fentress said some seniors bought into Fentress' style of coaching leadership and he admitted that some didn't.

"You could tell throughout the year the ones that did buy into it," Fentress said. "The one that didn't buy into it were sitting on the sideline and the ones who did were right in the middle of it.

Fentress said lessons learned for him during his first year at Woodville were important.

"I learned that you have to think about your total team and make some decisions that might not be best for your team at that time but they are best for your total program," Fentress said. "I also learned that the kids in this program have a lot of heart."

When Woodville went down by two touchdowns against Hemphill in the final game of the season, most teams would have called it a day but not this Eagle squad.

"They could have laid it down but they scored, held them and scored again," Fentress said. "We tried to bring back a win."

As far as the 2008 season, Fentress said the preparations have already begun.

"We have already started preparing for our first game in 2008," Fentress said. "We are about to get in the weight room and we are going to stay in there for a long time. We will work on getting stronger and getting faster."

Fentress also knows the Woodville program needs to build in their mind that they are a good program, capable of making the playoffs every year.

"We need to work on that every time we step on the field that we are going to win," Fentress said. "We need to work on that we expect ourselves to win every game. We need to get out of that mode that we are playing Newton this week; we're not supposed to win.

"It needs to be that when we step on the field, it doesn't matter who we are playing, we need to expect to win," Fentress said. "If the community and I don't expect that, then I am in the wrong place."