The Troy Trojans have found their man to lead their football team into battle after Stephen Hermesmeyer was announced as the next head coach and athletic director at the school on Tuesday morning.
Hermesmeyer comes over from Comanche High School, where he has served as the head coach since 2012. He will fill the void left by Ronnie Porter who stepped down as the head coach at Troy after seven years in order to spend more time with his kids. The Trojans are coming off a season where they finished 5-5 and missed out on the playoffs on the final day of the regular season.
“Comanche is a great place and it’s been a great community to raise my two kids in. As a coach, sometimes you just look for a different challenge, a different opportunity,” Hermesmeyer said. “When the Troy job came open, I know the area it is in. There is some great football played in class 3A down in that area. Some state champions the past few years have come from that area. It’s a huge challenge and I’m very excited for the opportunity.”
Hermesmeyer will bring plenty of head coaching experience to Troy. He has been a head coach in Texas for the past 13 years with four of those coming at Winters from 2008-2011 and the past nine coming at Comanche. Hermesmeyer has amassed an 84-64 record over those 13 years and took Comanche to the regional finals back in 2017. He led the Indians to an 8-3 record this past season where they suffered a defeat in the bi-district round to City View.
Hermesmeyer inherits a program that has had recent success after making it to the regional semifinals in playoffs in 2018 and the regional finals in 2019. However, he will have to replace star running back and Sam Houston State signee Zach Hrbacek, who rushed for 7,534 yards during his time as a four-year starter for the Trojans.
“[Hrbacek] is a heck of a running back,” Hermesmeyer said. “He accumulated a good portion of their offense, so we’re going to have to replace that and figure out how we do that and what pieces we have to put in place to do that.”
Despite the loss of Hrbacek, there are some key players returning for Hermesmeyer and his coaching staff to help replace Hrbacek’s production. Fullback Hunter Martin will be back after serving as the counterpart to Hrbacek last season, where he rushed for 573 yards and six touchdowns. Quarterback Jace Carr will return as well, although he only threw for 511 yards last year with Hrbacek doing most of the heavy lifting offensively.
Meanwhile, the Trojan defense gave up 34.3 points per game last year, but linebacker Kadin Workman will return after anchoring the defense as a first team all-district selection last season. He’ll be joined by another physical presence in defensive lineman Elijah Sunderman, who also anchors the Trojans on their offensive line and earned all-district honors on both sides of the ball.
Hermesmeyer said he will aim to instill the importance of that physicality to his football team.
“We want to have a very hard-nosed, tough football team,” Hermesmeyer said. “A team that goes out and plays the game hard but at the same time plays it the right way,”
With the talent he will have returning and the history of the program, Hermesmeyer acknowledged that there is a foundation at Troy for him to build off of.
“I’m definitely not having to take over a program that’s in bad shape,” Hermesmeyer said. “They’ve been successful. They’ve had some playoff wins in the past few years. They’re just in a tough district.”
Troy will face another year in that loaded 3A district that consists of 2020 regional semifinalist Lorena, two-time state finalist McGregor, 2017 state champion Rockdale, Little River Academy, traditional power Cameron Yoe, and Caldwell.
However, the Trojans will hope Hermesmeyer can lead them back to the promised land of the playoffs after they missed out last season.
“[We want] a team that not only our coaches can be proud of but our community can be proud of. We want to put a great product out there and be able to perform at a high level every Friday night,” Hermesmeyer said. “I’m excited for the opportunity and can’t wait to get down there and get to work.”
