Starting from scratch is tough. You have to make sure you have all the right ingredients and formula to get the final product exactly where you want it. That’s where Frisco Reedy is at, building from scratch as they play their first season of varsity football and the challenge for head coach Chad Cole.
Frisco Reedy opened in 2015 as Frisco’s eighth high school and only had freshman and sophomores, this year’s roster doesn’t have any seniors on the team as the school only has students from 9th-11th grade. With the UIL realignment every other year, the Lions were thrown into 13-5A-district play after one season of junior varsity football while other new schools in Frisco have had two years at the JV level before heading to varsity.
Chad Cole has been apart of a new school before, he was an assistant coach when Frisco Wakeland opened up in 2007, but unlike at Wakeland, he’s the man in charge here.
“Being at Wakeland gave me a good idea of what it would be like starting new, but it’s a lot different when you are an assistant and the head coach a whole different set of responsibilities.” Coach Cole said.
When he accepted to head coaching position to lead the Lions on January 11th, 2015, Cole knew he had to get a staff in place.
“It wasn’t hard for me to get a staff because everyone knows how great a school district Frisco ISD is, we have great resources and they treat our assistants great.” Cole said. “The coaches knew what they were getting into that it would be a challenge, but we could come back and say look what we started and we were the first to ever coach there so getting a staff wasn’t very hard.”
In their lone season at the junior varsity level, Reedy scheduled tough teams like Euless Trinity to prepare them for the size disadvantage they would face without any seniors on the team for the first two seasons at the varsity level. That gave the players an idea of what varsity would be like.
“The coaches have told us and we know we are going to be at a disadvantage size and depth wise this year, but that shouldn’t stop and won’t stop us from putting forward the effort needed.” Sophomore outside linebacker Travis Jones said. “They (coaches) said this was going to be a work year for us to get used to the speed of the game and next year we won’t lose any players so who knows what could happen then.”
The first varsity game was the first ever game in the Ford Center at The Star against Frisco Independence a 13-5A-district opponent a tough task for Reedy.
“We had no idea what was going to happen the first game, being it a district game, we didn’t know what our kids were thinking, they could have thought we could win the district, we had no idea what they were expecting.” Coach Cole said. “That second week though was a huge bounce back for us. We had our best day of practice that Monday after the loss and our kids weren’t discouraged and came and won an exciting close game, huge for us.”
The Lions were able to bounce back with a win in week two against Eaton 43-38, scoring in the final minute of the game.
The opening of the school has given the kids an opportunity to play at a higher level sooner than they might get at the school they thought they were going to at first. That was the case for sophomore quarterback Josh Foskey who was going to attend Wakeland high school before Reddy was built, but now is starting QB for the Lions.
“I doubt I would be starting varsity QB at Wakeland now, but here at Reedy it’s been great getting the opportunity to play as a sophomore it’s been great.” Foskey said. “Being able to be apart of the first varsity team is something we will always remember and have a friendship with everyone, being the foundation of the program is nice.”
While this year, the Lions are getting their feet under themselves, putting a specific wins and losses goal is hard to claim a successful season, it’s more about the work the players are putting in. That work continues to pay off as the Lions defeated Braswell 28-12 in week three to string together back to back wins and improve to 2-1 on the season. The work early in the season looks to be paying off with the early success.
“Before our class graduates, we want to make the playoffs, contended for a district title if not win it.” Foskey said. “Are those reachable? I have no idea, but we are going to work and try really really hard to get there and ya never know, they could be reached.”
