When it comes to making a leap of faith, sometimes things fall into place a little sooner than expected. That’s what happened at Midland Trinity this week when the school announced that it was moving up from the six-man ranks to 11-man football for the 2017 season earlier this week.
“This has been something that we had been flirting with for a while,” said head coach Antwan Alexander, “When I first got here, our program was blessed to have 30 kids and with us playing six-man football, the numbers just weren’t adding up. With the economy and people moving in and out, we just felt it was time to make that change now.”
“With new parents coming in and a new upper school, we formed an athletic committee to see if we could come up with a plan to move up,” said athletic director Jeff Young, “The more we talked about it all the obstacles that kept us from playing 11-man football kept clearing.”
The last hurdle that the school cleared was finding a full 10-game schedule of teams to play. They found that thanks to another school looking to move down. According to both Young and Alexander, Amarillo San Jacinto had been looking to move down to six-man football themselves. The end result was the swapping of schedules between the two teams. According to the Midland Reporter-Telegram, the Chargers will be playing in TAPPS Division III.
With that hurdle cleared, Young and Alexander both felt comfortable in making the move for 2017 as opposed to 2018. Safe to say, the move has also generated some energy and buzz around the program.
“You’re always nervous to make a change,” Young said, “You never know exactly the kind of reaction that you’re going to get but I’ve been blown away by the positive reaction from parents, the kids and the community.”
“One good thing we’ve done with this team is that we’ve built a family,” Alexander said, “The players are excited because this gives them an opportunity to show what type of athletes they are. They understand it’s a chance for them to leave their footprint and start a legacy.”
While both men acknowledge the excitement around this sudden change, there still comes the reality check that there is work to be done and fast. From extending the field and revamping the locker rooms to buying new helmets and jerseys for the players, the work starts now to get the Chargers ready for their first game in August.
“We are pressed for time,” Alexander said, “Some might say we should have waited to make this move next year. But for us, we just figured to go ahead and stick our neck out there and do everything we need to do to get ready for next season.”
“We’ve got a great senior class coming up that has a lot of strong leadership,” Young said, “and we feel that this class will take this challenge and run with it.”
Ultimately, this move aims to help the kids at the school. The football program is looking to have at least 30 kids in the varsity program by the time the team kicks off its season which Young says “should be an easy goal to reach.” After finishing 7-4 in 2016, there is also interest as to how the Chargers will fare in 2017. Alexander acknowledges this isn’t going to be an easy process but everyone at the school is ready to take on this new challenge.
“The biggest and most important thing for us next season is to get our first win. Once we get that, we can build upon that. We as coaches have to stay positive and the fans have to stay positive and patient. There’s going to be some bumps and bruises along the way but you just have to learn from those and we’ll be fine.”
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