TROUP, Texas — Two of the the hottest teams in Class 3A Division II Texas high school football are on a crash course Friday when New Diana travels to Troup.
The Troup Tigers always hold the expectation of being a playoff football team, but coming into the 2024 season, that goal felt like a much bigger task than it did in previous years.
"We lost 18 seniors a year ago," Troup head coach Sam Wells said. "We've got a really small senior class this year. There's only six of them so we do have some youth in some spots and whatnot."
The inexperience showed in the opening weeks of the season. Troup dropped their first two games, starting the season 0-2 for the first time since 2015.
"We started out a little slow the first couple of ball games, and came up on the short end. It's too many mistakes," Wells said.
While the team was young and lacked experience on the field, the sidelines told a different story. The Tigers are staffed with a tightly-knit coaching staff that has had several members around since the beginning of Wells' tenure as head coach seven years ago.
"Our philosophy is, we're going to coach them hard, love them harder," Wells said. "Our staff knows what it takes to get the inexperienced team to perform at the level they need to perform at, and so it's the consistency of the staff to keep coaching and coaching and coaching and coaching them up."
It all started to click after Troup picked up their first win in week three, and they haven't lost since. Their latest victory comes in the form of a 50-6 blowout against Winona.
Now the hottest they've been all season, they are ready to take a shot at ruining New Diana's perfect 6-0 record.
"(New Diana is) really talented, not many weaknesses." Wells said. "We're excited about where we are and the opportunity we have in front of us."
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