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Sunday, June 1, 2008
Rough Riders Hope For Smooth Transition
Fort Worth, TX
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Photo(s) By: Shawn Smajstrla
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Saginaw High School will play only its third varsity football season this year and will be under new leadership. Chris Wilde comes from 2A Hamilton to take over for Mike Lebby, who has laid the groundwork. After a 7-3 campaign last season, Wilde hopes to take the Rough Riders to the next level.
I spent the past eleven years in Hamilton, which is a class 2A school in Central Texas, the last ten years as athletic director and head football coach. Before that I spent a year coaching at Andrews, which at the time was 4A. I was the offensive line coach there and helped with the receivers. Before that I spent two years in Winters, which is a 2A school around Abilene.
My wife and I decided that if we were going to try to make a step to a bigger school – our kids are three and four right now – then now is the time to do it. We didn’t have to uproot them from where they were, and I’ve known Coach Lebby. I worked for him at Andrews. I’ve also known Tim Daughtry, the athletic director, on a professional basis for around ten years.
I know what type of program they’ve instituted, and it’s not like I’m walking into something that has to be completely rebuilt. It’s a good program, it’s very solid. The facilities are unreal and we’ve got some good players.
I did my homework. I knew that they had instituted a good program, that they put a lot of emphasis on the weight room. From a standpoint offensively, I know that their philosophy has been basically like mine. We’re not going to be a spread team. We’re going to run the ball and throw play-action passes and be physical and kind of play football the old way that it used to be played.
Obviously, the advantage [to taking over a young program] is that they have laid the groundwork. The hard, hard part, I think Coach Lebby has already done by laying that groundwork and establishing a group of kids that really love to play football.
A little bit of a disadvantage is that they’ve never been to the playoffs before, so as far as playoff tradition and expectations, they’re not really there yet. But, that’s kind of good, too, because they haven’t been and I think we can get there.
The first day I watched them go through some team drills and you could tell they like playing football, and that they’re aggressive and hard-nosed. Ninety percent of them were “yes, sir” or “no, sir,” and look you in the eye when they talk to you. And those things are big for me, especially coming from a small school.
I think football is football, I really do. I don’t think the coaches are any different from 1A to 5A. I think kids, when you get them out on the football field, they’re still kids. Now, the numbers of it are just astounding. In Hamilton, we had 353 kids in high school. Here, I think I already have over 300 football players. So, that’s a little bit overwhelming. In Hamilton I had six coaches under me on the football staff. Here I have 16. All those things are very overwhelming.
The first thing I did was met with the staff. Again, Coach Lebby had a great staff assembled, so it’s not like I had to come in and revamp everything. I visited with the kids and told them that a lot of the things I’ve learned and modeled my professional career on have been what I learned from Coach Lebby. So, it’s not going to be a drastic change. But, we’re going to change some. I’m not him, and he’s not me. I still have to be Chris Wilde. We simplified things a little bit, especially early to be clear on what we’re doing. We want to alleviate mistakes and play good football.
Obviously, our first goal is to be the first team from Saginaw High School to go to the playoffs. That’s the big goal. I think that can be achieved. Our district is very competitive, but our first goal is to get into the playoffs. I’ve been a coach long enough now and been in the playoffs almost every year that I’ve been one, and when you get there, who knows? If you can get in there and get to playing well, you never know.
Any coach that gets into this wants to win a state championship and that’s my goal. I want to win a state championship. When you’re younger, all you think about is winning state championships. But now I’ve got a family. I’ve got two great kids and I want to do it in a place that I can raise them and feel good about it and we can have a positive impact on the community, even though this is a way larger community than I’m used to. You want to win and you want to win a state championship, but you also want to do it the right way.
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