ANDERSON, Texas — No football program in the Brazos Valley has made more progress over the last few seasons than Anderson-Shiro.
The Owls went winless in 2016 and 2017, but have slowly developed into a dark horse contender in Class 3A DII.
The team's 2020 seniors are at the forefront of the program's transformation. A handful of them started on that 0-10 team as true freshman, but they continued to work hard and in as sophomore, won six games and clinched the school's first ever playoff birth.
2019 was an even better season.
The Owls went 8-2 in the regular season but once again lost in the Bi-District round of the playoffs.
Now that this group has had a taste of the playoffs, head coach Brad Hodges is changing the goal a bit. Instead of just making it to the postseason, his team's goal in 2020 is to get the school's first playoff win.
"We all started out together," Hodges says. "To get those guys from where they started to where they are now... what they've been through to get this program up and running. It'll just kind of help build for the future and where this program is headed. "
"Having the experience that we have will get our confidence up," senior lineman Zane Moriarty says. "We have some talent and heart that we can go get that playoff win and go further."
The Owls do have to replace star running back Woody Haynes this season, but coach Hodges says he's confident his team will find ways to score plenty of points this year.
