GRIDIRON GLANCE ’25: Richland Springs Coyotes

August 18, 2025 at 7:26 am Derrick Stuckly

RICHLAND SPRINGS – The Richland Springs Coyotes’ quest for an elusive 10^th six-man state championship has been derailed the past two seasons by Oglesby in the playoffs, but a new head coach in 2025 looks to get the program back to the state championship game for the first time since the 2020 campaign.

Harley Ethridge, who has served as an assistant off and on at Richland Springs over the past two decades, is now firmly in charge of a program that returns 12 of 17 lettermen, including four offensive and defensive starters, from a 12-1 squad in 2024.

“It’s a great opportunity,” Ethridge, who as a head coach guided Follett to a state championship game appearance in 2012 only to fall to Richland Springs in the final, said of taking over the Coyotes program. “This wasn’t something I was really looking to do, but they asked me to do it and it’s an honor. I’m excited about it, it’s a great opportunity and we’ll see how it goes.”

As has been the case for more than 20 years now, the goal for the Class A Division II No. 3 Coyotes at the end of the year is to be in Arlington, hoisting another state championship trophy just in time for Christmas.

“The expectations are to the ceiling,” Ethridge said. “We expect to get to the championship game. We have a good core coming back, all the seniors had a lot of experience as juniors. We also have some good freshmen, a couple of sophomores, and they all showed up this summer. I couldn’t be more pleased with the summer workout program, we had 86 percent of our players show up and it’s never been that high of a participation rate. That’s the first step to getting where we want to go.”

Key contributors for the Coyotes in 2025 are expected to be Billy Perry – who led Richland Springs in rushing yards, passing yards, tackles and sacks a year ago – as well as Cohen Ethridge, Brice Roesler, Eli Hutchins, Ethan Deeds and Evan Deeds.

“We’re going to be about 10 deep, so we’ll see what happens,” Ethridge said.

The Coyotes start the season with perhaps the toughest back-to-back slate of games of any team in the state – against Class A Division I No. 1 and defending state champion Gordon on Thursday, Aug. 28 in Priddy, and at home against Class A Division I No. 4 May on Friday, Sept. 5.

“We need to figure out our system under pressure, which is why we scheduled those two games,” Ethridge said. “We need some adversity so we can build some character. Whatever the number is after two weeks, 2-0, 1-1, 0-2, we’re going to use it to make us better.”

Following the two Top 5 foes early on, the Coyotes will host Nueces Canyon (Sept. 12), visit Bryan St. Joseph (Sept. 19), welcome the West Texas Tornadoes (Sept. 26) and venture to Lometa (Oct. 3) prior to the District 15-A Division II opener.

League play begins Oct. 10 against Brookesmith for homecoming, then after a bye the Coyotes close with Panther Creek (Oct. 24) and Rochelle (Oct. 31) at home, before a trip to Lohn (Nov. 7).

“I think the district will come down to us and Rochelle, probably,” Ethridge said. “If we take care of business, do what we’ve done in the past, we should be all right in the district.”

Regarding what it will take for Richland Springs to push for a 10^th state title in 2025, Ethridge said, “We have to get more mature, stay focused, and my offense is a little more complicated than most and they’re trying to adapt to that, and so far they have. We’re going to work on that the first two scrimmages, we just have to learn how to be consistent and machine-like. That’s been the forte of the Richland Springs teams of the past, they were like machines. It may take a while, but we expect to get there.”

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RICHLAND SPRINGS COYOTES 2025 FOOTBALL SCHEDULE

August 28	Gordon (at Priddy)	7:30 p.m.
September 05	May	7:30 p.m.
September 12	Nueces Canyon	7:30 p.m.
September 19	at Bryan St. Joseph	7:30 p.m.
September 26	West Texas Tornadoes	7:30 p.m.
October 03	at Lometa	7:30 p.m.
October 10	Brookesmith*#	7:30 p.m.
October 17	OPEN
October 24	Panther Creek*	7:30 p.m.
October 31	Rochelle*	7:30 p.m.
November 07	at Lohn*	7:30 p.m.