BURTON, Texas — After an early exit from the postseason last fall, the Panthers are using that loss as motivation and are ready for redemption.
“We lost in our first round last year and it didn't stick well with a lot of our young guys,” head coach Jason Hodde said.
“It just gives me goosebumps talking about it. That’s all they want to talk about how well they can do and how good they can do and so the motivation is there. They know there's a tradition here that they have to uphold and so we're just going to work hard. That's what we got to do.”
The Panthers have not played a home game in two years and have had to practice on the school’s baseball field. But now the turf is down, the bleachers are going up and it’s helped breathe new life into the program.
“Just practicing on it feels like home again and having something with the cat on it and the red,” Hodde said. “Just having some lines and some true, some turf. It's cool. We're excited, super pumped and we're just looking forward to it.”
“I'm pretty excited,” senior right tackle D’Mitry Schulte said.
“I never played at a home game. I'm finally going to get the feeling of how it is to play at your hometown.”
“Oh, they're excited because whenever I was a freshman and we had the home games there, you couldn't see the fences. I mean, it was just filled with people,” senior running back Brady Griffin said.
Last season, the Panthers were a young team, starting quite a few freshmen and sophomores, but now with a year of experience under their belt combined with the leadership from the upperclassmen – Hodde likes where his team is at early into camp.
“I really like how they've all grouped themselves together and been real positive and they've been real upbeat,” Hodde said. “So far you can just tell in two days that the chemistry is going to be spot on and, they're not very selfish people and that's a good thing and that's going to help us to succeed in the long run.”
After graduating standout running back Tyrone Gilmon – all eyes will be on the backfield to see who will step up and impact the ground game.
“Tyrone Gilmon was a running back for us for three years and we're certainly going to have to fill that void,” Hodde said. “But we got some kids that are definitely capable and willing to do it.”
Burton has a new energy headed into this fall and know that it’ll take 100% effort from everyone to have long term success.
“We just got to work together and when times get rough,” Griffin said. “You just got to pick each other up and just go on from there.”
Burton will open up the season week 1 on the road, taking on the Holland Hornets. Kickoff is set for 7pm.
