Making new records

Fighting Farmer football team enters district undefeated

Junior+quarterback+Taylen+Green+%2817%29+evades+a+tackle+as+he+runs+the+ball+at+the+home+game+against+McKinney+Boyd+on+Friday%2C+Sept.+13.

Anna Velazquez

Junior quarterback Taylen Green (17) evades a tackle as he runs the ball at the home game against McKinney Boyd on Friday, Sept. 13.

The Fighting Farmer football team has been seeing success in the three games of the pre-district season. Currently standing at a record of [3-0], the Farmers are the only undefeated team in the district thus far. It has been an estimated 19 years since the Fighting Farmer football team has been undefeated going into district. Although this is a milestone for the team, the coaches and players choose to focus on improvement rather than dwell on success.

“It feels good to win the games on our schedule, but that means absolutely nothing,” head football coach Michael Odle said. “I don’t want our coaches or players to focus on that because it does not matter. We have to make sure that through our success and our failures, we are improving. We don’t allow results to cover up things that we need to get better at. We’re just scratching the surface of what we think we can become.”

During the 2018 season, the underclassmen watched the senior class carefully and now implement the dedication the players had to each other into this year’s team. The senior players wish to go above and beyond what the class before them was able to achieve.

We’re just scratching the surface of what we think we can become.

— head football coach Michael Odle

“We’re all there for each other,” senior defensive back Shadwel Nkuba (21) said. “We’re just a brotherhood. When we look at last year’s team, we see how they were and we want to go back and be better. They played as a team and were all together, so we’re trying to do all of that but better.”

Odle attributes this season’s record to the work ethic and companionship he has witnessed in the team. While he appreciates the work done during the pre-district games, he aims for progress to be achieved throughout the rest of the season.

“Right now, I see a group who, although they aren’t perfect, they love each other through adversity and they’re excited to go compete for one another,” Odle said. “I think that’s why they play so hard on Friday nights.”

The team believes in its potential and wants to continue to grow as district starts. The Fighting Farmers will face off against last season’s district champions, the Flower Mound Jaguars, at Flower Mound High School on Friday, Oct. 3 and hopes to improve its skill set in anticipation of the game.

“Flower Mound is our next opponent,” senior linebacker Lester Thigpen (15) said. “And that’s the only one we lost to in the district last year. But this year I feel great, we’re gonna beat them.”