WACO, Texas (KXXV — The Live Oak Falcons are on a whole new road to Red Zone as they made the switch to go from six man football to traditional 11-man football.
"I'm cautiously optimistic about where we're at and pleased with the guy's work, the guys picking up stuff mentally. So, all of it is good and we're in a really good spot right now. We just gotta keep working day by day," Live Oak head football coach, Matthew Hurst, said.
"It's a little different than the six man practices. A little less conditioning. More focusing on your spot alone. Six man, we were all together pretty much the entire time," senior, Allan Pahmiyer, said.
Bringing this team all together is new head coach Matthew Hurst. Hurst and his staff in early practices have already seen progress.
"We're becoming more and more cohesive and I say it's been amazing from the standpoint of how quickly the kids have embraced, not only me, but my fellow coaches as well," he said.
"He's got a little bit different style of coaching and that may also go along with 11-man rather than six man. It's been good getting to know him," Pahmiyer said.
Last season, the Falcons finished unbeaten district play, but their postseason was cut short due to Covenant Christian, the team they play to open this season.
"It was a bittersweet ending. We lost to the state champions again. Second year row, we're playing a team we lost to in our first real game. And so that, that's exciting for us getting to go into that knowing like, hey, we got another shot at this," Pahmiyer said.
The Falcons first game of the season will be against Covenant Christian.
