Monday marks the first day of preseason high school football practice in the state of Texas, and the Brownwood Lions’ preparations for their initial campaign under new head coach Jeryl Brixey will kick into high gear.
“It’s exciting and daunting to be quite honest with the amount of things that have to be done to get ready to go, so there’s some nerves,” Brixey said of his outlook as Monday’s first practice draws ever closer. “It’s a different feel for sure when your name is the one on the door. The buck stops here, but I’m excited to see how it goes.”
The 10th through 12th grade Lions will practice Monday through Friday next week from 6:30 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. at Gordon Wood Stadium. The week will conclude with an intrasquad scrimmage Saturday morning at the stadium as varsity, junior varsity and freshman players will all see action.
“We’re going to have about 25 minutes of conditioning at the start then we’ll go into a 2 ½ hour practice,” Brixey said. “We’ll practice both sides of the football for a week and then after the Saturday scrimmage we’re going to basically draft them into offense and defense and play one way, with some crossover kids. We’re going to train on one side of the football in individual drills and the kids that are going to need to cross over for depth, we’ll pick that up in the team drills. I don’t want to make choices right now about where kids play when I’ve never seen them in pads. It puts us a little behind with double training for this first week, but I don’t want to make a call on a position for a kid when he hasn’t been given a true, honest chance in pads to show us what he can do and we as a staff haven’t had a true, honest opportunity to evaluate him. I’ve said since the day I was hired we’re going to play defense first. When we start looking at it we’re going to pick a quarterback, running back and receiver, and the defense picks the next 11.”
Joining Brixey’s coaching staff will be offensive coordinator Jacob Marwitz, defensive coordinator and inside linebackers coach Steve Fanara, special teams coordinator and linebackers coach Chris Bright, offensive line coach and assistant head coach Lee Grimes, offensive line assistant CJ Marsh, receivers coach Graylon Brown, running backs coach Colt Bertrand, cornerbacks coach Darren Bailey, safeties coach Brandon Long, defensive line coach JaMichael Jordan, and assistant defensive line coach Kory Owen. Grimes, Brown, Owen and Bertrand are all Brownwood High School graduates.
“I feel like we have a very strong staff, diverse in age, experience and backgrounds,” Brixey said. “I think they’re going to have a good rapport with our kids. They’re going to coach our kids hard, they’re going to challenge them, they’re going to push them. I want them to coach every single play, find something to correct, to point out, to praise. We’re not going to sit back with our arms folded and watch practice. We’re going to coach with our ears pinned back going at it because that’s how you get better.”
Brownwood will visit Wichita Falls Legacy on Thursday, Aug. 14 in its first scrimmage, host Alvarado on Thursday, Aug. 21 in the final scrimmage, kick off the season Friday, Aug. 29 at Abilene Wylie, and welcome Wall Friday, Sept. 5 in the first game in the revamped Gordon Wood Stadium.
The Lions are coming off a 6-5 campaign and bi-district championship in 2024, the third consecutive opening-round playoff victory for the program.