The Emerson Mavericks took on the Walnut Grove Wildcats at the Children’s Health Stadium in Prosper on Sept. 12. The final score was 49-0, with the Mavericks taking the loss. Students showed their support by dressing in western or country club outfits to fit the theme of country versus country club.
The Wildcats scored a touchdown early on in the game and continued with the upper hand. At halftime, the Majestics, color guard and band raised everyone’s spirits with their performances. Although the Mavericks weren’t able to catch up, the coaches were proud of the team’s hard work and dedication.
“The team we played against on Friday is a very good team,” football coach Eric Smith said. “They won the district last year and they’re a school that is the size of a 6A school.”
Although the outcome wasn’t what the team expected, they went into the second half of the game feeling optimistic about their performance in the first half.
“We’re very proud of our attitudes, and I was told about this from another coach who’s not around football, that our attitude around the team is a lot more positive this year,” Smith said. “There’s a lot less people overstressing about mistakes and trying to move forward to correct them.”
The coaches push the team to be as successful as possible and dedicate spare time to finding new strategies. They know the more time they spend working on plays and exercising, the more they can help the players develop and work together as a team.
“We show up, and we [do] a lot of film and preparation every single week,” Smith said. “The offense and defensive staff are here for 10 or 12 hours on the weekends putting together game plans for the following week and just putting our guys in the best position to be successful.”
Although the team has been putting in a lot of effort, they still have room to grow if they want to be successful.
“We still have a lot of growing pains [with] guys that don’t have a ton of varsity experience, but as we start to get a little bit healthier and get some of that experience and … that confidence under our belt, I think we’re going to have a lot of successes in the next few weeks,” Smith said.
There are many specific areas the coaches want the team to improve on, so they maximize practice time by splitting up offense and defense, with both sides focusing on increasing their tempo and confidence while playing. The team is able to tailor drills to each side while remaining dedicated to improving one or two aspects of how they play.
“I am a natural competitor and love being on a team, so knowing we all have a common goal brings me satisfaction to the game,” Andrew Adame, 10, said.
Adame is one of the few sophomores on varsity, which adds responsibility to continuously improve. However, the constant pressure can sometimes get to the players’ heads if they overthink what went wrong.
“I think we could have done a much better job of executing our game plan and staying motivated even when we were down,” Adame said.
Although the team has faced hard losses, they have plans to keep improving little by little.
“With our staff being extremely similar to what we have had with success in the past, [I know] that we will continue to grow as a team, if we are confident in our gameplay,” Smith said.
The team isn’t just working for nothing. Every practice, mistake and hour spent planning combines to move closer to their objective, one step at a time.
“Our overall goal is [still] to get into the playoffs … And those [possibilities] are still very much in our future,” Smith said. “The teams that are the strongest teams in our district, we still have three of them that we get to play. And if we can beat one or two of them, that puts us in a chance to get to the playoffs.”
The Mavericks have had their ups and downs but remain united. They’re constantly putting in effort to be the best version of themselves, and although they lost on Friday, their performance reflects the team’s willingness to accept feedback and grow together.
“We are going to remain positive, … know we got each other’s back and know if we remain confident we will win the game,” Adame said.
