It was 10:00 PM on Friday, Aug. 27 as the stadium lights shined down on Ellison Field in Axtell, Texas. After a raucous three hours, the storm of bands and cheering fans and pads crunching up against one another has passed and left in its wake a 46-21 loss to Granger for Axtell to ponder over.
However, as they walked off their home field and focused on Bremond in week two, the Longhorns had no idea of the chaos that the next week would bring.
Saturday, August 28
The first domino of the week falls. Axtell ISD Superintendent Dr. J.R. Proctor makes an unexpected announcement to staff that Rusty Reynolds will be stepping down as head football coach to focus solely on his duties as Axtell ISD athletic director.
Offensive coordinator Justin Havard is chosen to serve as the head coach. Havard had been an assistant coach at China Spring, Yorktown, and Woodville before joining the Axtell staff in the summer of 2020.
After 11 years of being an assistant coach, this will be his first head coaching job.
It wasn’t a decision that he saw coming.
“[Coach Reynolds and I] had talked a little bit,” Havard said. “I wasn’t really sure that it (Reynolds stepping down) was going to happen right then. I figured it would be after the season or even one more season into it.”
However, out of respect to Reynolds, Havard has to wait until Monday to be named head coach in front of his players as he wants Reynolds to be able to announce his decision to the entire team.
Monday, August 30
After Reynolds makes the announcement to the team, the Longhorns head out to practice to get ready for their matchup against Bremond on Friday.
It’s a tough task ahead of them.
Axtell has won just two games total the past two seasons. Bremond, meanwhile, won back-to-back-to-back 2A Division II state titles between 2014 and 2016 and finished with an 8-4 record in 2020. With the pedigree from their successful last decade and another strong team this year, the Tigers are installed as 35-point favorites to beat Axtell.
“Bremond is just a powerhouse,” Havard said. “They’re one of those gold standards for high school football. When people hear the name Bremond, they are like Mart, Refugio, or Lake Travis. It’s a football town.”
Back on the practice field, the Longhorns get off to a bit of a slow start as they try and adjust to their new head coach after a whirlwind of a day.
“Anytime your head coach steps down, even if it’s for the best, that’s tough on the kids,” Havard said. “I called them all up, [and told them] changes happen; that’s life. Football is going to teach you more about life than you ever know.”
After Havard’s pep talk, his players locked into the task at hand and practice picks up as the Longhorns prepare for the test that awaits them on Friday.
Tuesday, August 31
Axtell is walking out to practice when another unforeseen announcement occurs. Axtell ISD announces that due to rising COVID-19 cases, the school district will be closing on Friday for a four-day weekend of social distancing. Bremond ISD had made a similar announcement just a day earlier.
With neither school district set to be open on the day that the game is scheduled for, the teams agree to move the game up to Thursday night to try and ensure that the game will get played.
The decision throws a wrench into Axtell’s practice plan. The Longhorns always do a walk-through practice the day before a game, so now the Longhorns only have today to run a full practice and learn the game plan for Bremond.
Havard and his players adjust on the fly.
“We went out and probably had the best practice we’ve had this year,” Havard said. “The kids were excited. They bought into the change. The [coaching] transition was actually really smooth.”
Wednesday, September 1
Axtell suffers another blow Wednesday as its starting safety is forced to quarantine about being in close contact with someone who tested positive for COVID-19. With its other starting safety already in quarantine from the previous week, the Longhorns are now missing half their secondary.
With the number of quarantined players rising, Havard and his staff consider canceling the game with both Axtell ISD and Bremond ISD closing on Friday anyways.
When Havard suggests that possibility to his players, they are resolute in their response.
“They are like ‘no, no matter what we want to play this game even if there are only 11 of us,” Havard said.
Game on.
Thursday, September 2
Pre-Game
As most people were getting out of bed, Axtell got hit with more bad news. Havard got a call at 6:30 a.m. from his starting right tackle that he is sick with a stomach bug and will be unable to take the field that night.
After moving around personnel all week, Havard doesn’t panic. He simply slides versatile senior offensive lineman Mathew Cagle over to the right tackle position.
At noon, the Longhorns finally get some good news. Star running back Jayme Wooley bounds into Havard’s classroom with a smile on his face. He has just been cleared to play in tonight’s game, a huge boost for the Longhorns.
“He’s the leader of our team; when he talks, everybody listens,” Havard said. “We were already tuned in and focused, but when he walked in, it changed the whole environment. It was like ‘okay, we’re about to go do this.’”
Later that afternoon, as the Longhorns set out to make the 50-mile trek to Bremond, the players sit with their headphones in and feet propped up. The bus is silent.
After a hectic week of news off the field, Axtell is ready to go to battle on the gridiron.
First Half
Havard starts his head coaching career off with a bang, calling for an onside kick to open the game. Bremond recovers it, but the Axtell defense holds strong and forces a punt.
The Longhorn offense needs just three plays after that to get on the board as running back Jordan Davis finds a hole and races away for a 61-yard touchdown to put Axtell up 8-0.
On its next offensive drive, Axtell fumbles. Bremond took full advantage and scored on a 59-yard run to tie the game at eight.
That back-and-forth nature continued throughout the half. Axtell quarterback Cameron Campos delivered two touchdown passes, including a 70-yard bomb to Wooley. But Bremond answered both times and the teams go into halftime tied at 22.
As Axtell retreated to its hot and muggy locker room, Havard is fired up by the first 24 minutes of football that he has seen.
“I looked at them, and I said, ‘are you excited,’” Havard said. “‘This is how football should be. It should be tight like this. Pressure on us and backs against the wall, we’re the underdogs.’”
Second half
There was electricity among the Axtell players as they headed back out for the second half. The Longhorns took the field early, 15 minutes before halftime ended, to stretch and get prepared for 24 more minutes of hard-nosed football.
The second half was just as tight as the first half.
After Bremond opened the scoring in the second half to go up 28-22, Axtell turned to its bag of tricks. Freshman safety/wide receiver Kelby Hollingsworth, who had never thrown a varsity pass before, took a pitch out of the backfield, stopped in his tracks, and lobbed the ball up to Wooley. The ball is right on the money and Wooley raced 69 yards for the score.
Tie ball game.
Fast forward a quarter and both teams are still knotted at 28 with just 20 seconds left in the game. Bremond punts from midfield and Havard expects the last few ticks of the clock to be rather uneventful.
“I tell our receivers coach, ‘hey, we’re going to take a knee here and take this overtime,’” Havard said.
However, chaos ensues. A high snap causes trouble for the Bremond punter, who is then tackled by Axtell defenders at his own 41-yard line. Suddenly, Axtell has a chance to win the game.
“My receivers coach looks at me and says “sure, we’re not taking a knee,” Havard said. “I said ‘hell no. Line those guys up. We’re taking our shot.’”
Going for the Win
Havard and his staff call a play that they had practiced all summer. It’s a double move route run by a receiver, an all-or-nothing play.
Campos lines up in the shotgun and gets the protection he needs to let the play develop. He lets the ball fly searching for Jayme Wooley deep.
Pandemonium.
Wooley secures the catch before breaking three tackles en route to a game-winning, 41-yard touchdown, his third touchdown of the game. Once he reaches the end zone with just seven seconds left, Wooley jumps repeatedly for joy as the Axtell sideline loses its mind. After a successful two-point conversion, there’s no time for a shell-shocked Bremond to overcome a 36-28 deficit.
After a wild week, Axtell has something to celebrate.
Post-Game
As his team celebrates, Havard instantly thinks of Ty Robinson, who he worked under at Yorktown. Robinson mentored Havard and told him that he would help mold him into a head coach. Robinson’s dad, Wendell, coached high school football for 32 years and had been the head coach at Bremond from 1985-1996.
While Havard was at Yorktown, Wendell would take Havard’s eldest daughter for a ride on his wheelchair around the track before the game began. Wendell died back in 2017 and is now buried right outside Bremond’s stadium.
A head coach’s first victory always means a lot, but for Havard’s to come in Bremond, it meant the world to him.
“As soon as I got off the field, Ty was the first person I called,” Havard said. “It’s funny how Texas football works. It’s like its own small community.”
For his team that has endured two straight one-win seasons, winning as a 35-point underdog sent a statement throughout Central Texas.
Axtell is sick of being everyone’s homecoming game.
And after a week filled with adversity and adapting on the fly, Havard believes that there is something special happening in Axtell.
“I can’t say enough of how proud I am of our kids, just the way that they fought,” Havard said. “Just starting out, trying to change this place, there’s not a better team to beat than Bremond.”
Epilogue
After their memorable victory in week two, the Longhorns faced another monumental task in week three as they were 44-point underdogs against Crawford, which made a run to the state semifinals a year ago.
This time, there was no upset in the cards. Crawford jumped all over the Longhorns early and often. The Pirates scored seven rushing touchdowns on the night and forced two turnovers defensively in a dominating 57-0 victory that dropped Axtell to 1-2 on the season.
For Axtell, there’s another tough non-district game upcoming as it will host Chilton this week before it wraps up non-district play by traveling to Meridian the following week.
And even though Axtell has suffered two lopsided defeats on either side of its improbable victory, Havard knows that there is a method to the madness.
“I keep telling our kids that all these preseason games are set up for one thing: so we can have success in the district,” Havard said. “When we get to district, that’s when we’re going to buy our ticket and when we get to the playoffs, we’re going to go to the dance. That’s our ultimate goal.”
Brought to you by:
