Wednesday, April 24, 2024
By their own admission, Granbury football players aren’t the most gifted high school athletes in Texas.
The Pirates won’t be landing on all-state teams or getting recruiting visits from the Nick Sabans and Dabo Swinneys.
They try to overcome their lack of size and speed with teamwork, fundamentals and just pure-dee grit.
They have another huge positive in their favor: They’re not quitters.
The Pirates (2-2, 1-0) trailed by three touchdowns in two games this season but refused to fold and fought back to have a chance at the end.
The defense is young. Only three starters are back from last year. Two freshmen — a rarity — start on defense.
In defensive coordinator Sonny Galindo’s 23 years of coaching he’s never had two freshmen starters.
The freshmen — linebacker August (Auggie) Zapata and safety Jadon Rogers — are good players and getting better with every game, Galindo said.
“They’ve been a blessing to our energy,” he said. “They’re pushing the older kids to be more competitive.
“One of the good things about being young and not having the experience is they just play football. There’s no time to be nervous.”
Rogers admitted he lacked confidence early in the season because he was small compared to the opposition. But playing time, “great teammates and a coaching staff” helped him overcome his anxiety.
Galindo emphasizes three basics for his defense: alignment, assignment and running to the football.
Alignment and assignment are fundamentals that Galindo says can’t be taught enough.
“Any game you watch – Alabama, the Dallas Cowboys, the Texans, the Granbury Pirates — typically the most successful at the end of game is the one with the best fundamentals,” Galindo said.
He wants his players flying to the ball and sticking helmets on the runner. That’s exactly what they were doing for almost three quarters Thursday night in Crowley, bolting to a 26-0 lead before hanging on for a 32-21 win.
“We don’t want to be one-on-one tacklers,” Galindo explained, “because nine times out of 10 we’re not going to be the best athlete on the field.”
Junior Tate Baker agrees with his coach on the emphasis of gang tackling.
“They can break one tackle but can’t break three or four,” Baker said.
Coaches try to put the best athletes on defense, Galindo said. Big bodies are okay, he explained, but they need to have some quickness such as the players this season.
The Pirate defense isn’t tricky. They don’t run a lot of blitzes and stunts.
“We’re not a fancy defense,” Galindo explains. “We want to make it as simple as we can for our kids. If we make them think, they’re going to slow down, and we don’t want a slow defense.”
The Pirates look forward to the “Bugger Windshield” drill in practice.
“We’ll line up and challenge each other,” Galindo said. “It’s a safer version of the old Oklahoma drill to improve our physicality. The kids really buy into it.
“We always want to be the windshield, not the bug.”
Juniors Israel Ramirez and Dereck Lacy provide outstanding leadership, and the younger players see the leaders’ hunger for returning to the playoffs.
Junior Brooks Pearce’s tenacity impresses Galindo. “He weighs about 170 pounds soaking wet” but one of the better Pirate defenders because he doesn’t make mistakes, Galindo said.
No one’s a harder fighter than senior Nico Ramirez. Injuries kept him from playing his sophomore year, but he has bounced back from shoulder and knee surgeries to be one of the leaders on the team.
The never-say-die attitude is the Pirates’ mindset, Ramirez said. “That’s kinda who we are.”
Galindo believes the Pirates will be in the thick of the district race and hopes the team’s hard work in practice will pay off.
“We try to outwork our opponents before the game ever happens,” he explained.
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“Whenever we play as a team there’s more energy than if we play by ourselves.”
DARRIUS EVANS,
SENIOR
