First-year Palo Duro head coach Eric Mims is a Palo Duro Don through and through.
Coming Home to the Dons
Mims graduated from Palo Duro in 2000 after starring for the varsity football team. His mom was the first girls’ track coach at the school, and his father, brothers, sisters, and cousins all graduated from the school.
His wife was the school’s prom queen, and after receiving his BA degree from West Texas A&M in 2005, Mims served as an assistant for several years under longtime Palo Duro football coach Steve Parr.
“This school and community mean a lot to me,” Mims said. “[My family] has deep roots in this community. We bleed blue. We’re all about that Northside Pride.”
With his roots in the community, it would appear that his decision to return to Palo Duro this past winter to serve as the school’s head football coach and athletic coordinator was an easy one.
A Great Decision and a Slam Dunk Hire for Palo Duro
However, Mims still felt the sting of being passed over for the position back in 2015 when Palo Duro went with Chris Fisher to be its next head coach instead.
While he was on the fence about applying this time around, he received a call from Amarillo ISD athletic director Brad Thiessen asking him to interview for the job.
“After consideration and thoughts and prayers on that, I decided to go ahead and swallow my pride and give this a shot,” Mims said. “It has been a great decision since then.”
So far, Mims has been a slam dunk hire. He has Palo Duro off to its first 4-0 start since 2001. Those four wins are already the most Palo Duro has had in a single season since 2014, the last time the Dons made the playoffs.
The achievements made by his football team during its non-district slate are exactly what Mims envisioned when he walked through the door on Feb. 1, his first day on the job.
Palo Duro Wins First Season-Opener since 2012
Even though Palo Duro had only won 13 games in the past six seasons combined, Mims said he immediately set the expectation that the Dons were going to win seven football games this season and make the playoffs.
“I always knew what type of talent resided on the north side of Amarillo,” Mims said. “And as the offseason kept rolling, we became a better football team. Day-by-day, they began to believe and trust the process.”
After an offseason full of improvement, the first test for Mims and his team came against 4A Seminole, a playoff team from a year ago. The game posed a unique challenge for Palo Duro as the Dons headed into the game with two JV quarterbacks set to play since its regular starters were unavailable.
Once the game got going, it was a roller coaster.
Back and Forth Game
Palo Duro led 26-14 heading into the fourth quarter, but Seminole quickly flipped the script. The Indians scored two touchdowns in 31 seconds of game time, the second one coming on a pick-six, to tie the game up at 26 and eventually send the game to overtime.
In the extra period, Palo Duro started with the ball first, and on fourth-and-three, running back Kameron Brown took a direct snap and found a hole for an 18-yard touchdown run to put the Dons up 34-26 after a successful two-point conversion by Tre’Sean Monroe.
On the ensuing possession, it looked like Palo Duro had won when a Seminole pass fell incomplete on fourth down, but a pass interference call gave the Indians new life.
Yet again, the Palo Duro defense stood strong, batting a pass down on another Seminole fourth down attempt to secure a memorable 34-26 victory, Palo Duro’s first win in a season opener since 2012.
“Our kids were scrappy; our kids were resilient,” Mims said. “When we knocked that last pass down, it was like our kids won the Super Bowl. They got to reap a small harvest for all the work we had put in since February 1. That really put a lot of confidence in them that they could actually win.”
Just Win!
From there, Palo Duro has just kept winning. The Dons outgunned Plainview 64-41 in week two, the most points scored by Palo Duro in over 30 years, knocked off Wichita Falls 39-14 and scored 22 unanswered points to defeat Borger 35-13 last week.
And while Mims said each player has done an outstanding job of fulfilling their role on the team through the first four weeks, the offensive line led by Rylee Brown, J’Sean Palmer, Alan Perez, Sammy Santos, and Amarus Pendleton has been especially pivotal for the Dons, allowing them to average nearly 200 yards rushing per game.
Two Quarterback System
Behind that offensive line, Mims has chosen to play two quarterbacks with athletic juniors Jayden Garza and Avery Randle sharing time under center. Although the move to rotate quarterbacks could be considered unorthodox by some, the Dons offense has been firing on all cylinders, averaging 39.2 points per game.
“The decision boils down to me exclusively, and I believe in both of these young men,” Mims said. “Both of them are college-caliber athletes, and I want to allow both of those young men to have an opportunity to play at the next level. They’re doing a great job. It’s a blessing to have both of those guys.”
Tough Test in Week 5
But the Dons are likely in for the stiffest test of their season this Thursday when they take on district-favorite Tascosa to open District 2-5A Division I play. After its 4-0 start, Mims has full belief that his team will be full of confidence and ready to battle.
“This is going to be the biggest challenge that we’ve had so far; Tascosa is very good; they have speed and size, they’re physical, and they’re athletic,” Mims said. “Our kids are encouraged to go out and play hard and play fast. We definitely believe we can win, and we’re not going to go out thinking anything otherwise.”
Changing the Culture at Palo Duro
But no matter what happens in district play, Mims has already changed the energy and attitude surrounding the Palo Duro program in just four games. From the Palo Duro High School hallways to grocery stores in the community, there is a buzz about what the Dons are accomplishing on the field.
“When you go places, you hear people talking about Palo Duro football,” Mims said. “It has been really exciting to see these kids, who haven’t had a lot of success, evolve into young men who are being respected in the hallways and who the community is really excited about. They restored the pride to the Northside.”
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