Wimberley played their first scrimmage of the year last Friday as the Texans took on the Davenport Wolves.
In his first season as Head Coach, Wesley Lambert used the scrimmage to help identify the players that will lead the Texans into the new era.
“What I’m coming into this and looking for is who are our guys that are going to be physical,” Lambert said. “Who are our guys that are going to stand tall during adversity and look for those moments to identify those guys that we want to go to war with. We want to make sure that they’re out there with us on Friday nights.”
The Texans enter the season returning just four starters on both offense and defense after going 12-3 last season with a district championship, regional championship and an appearance in the state semifinals.
On offense, the Texans will look to reload following the graduation of quarterback Cody Stoever who passed for 2,776 yards and 33 touchdowns while rushing for 1,565 yards and 29 touchdowns.
With the Wimberley offense adjusting to life without Stoever, Lambert is focused on both trying to help the Texans search for their new identity while also maintaining a high level of physicality.
“We’re just trying to find what our niche is,” Lambert said. “I want those guys to focus on being a physical football team, win the battle up front, make sure that we control the game from our run game and then open up the passing game.”
The legendary ‘Code Red’ defense is also looking to find new leaders after replacing three of their top tacklers in Ty Thames [172], Reid Leinneweber [132] and Jace Cutrona [89].
Though Lambert is happy with how the Texans performed defensively at times, the first-year head coach still knows there is a lot of room for improvement come the season opener.
“In spurts, I thought I was really pleased with [our defense],” Lambert said. ”We gave up some explosive plays that I would like to minimize. We could have had a goal line stand at one point in the scrimmage, but we ended up with the offsides [penalty] and reset the chains which you just can’t shoot yourself in the foot. But I was proud of the guys, the way they bowed up, fought hard in the red zone, and we minimized those mistakes. We can be just fine on Friday night.”
The Texans faced a tough scrimmage against the Wolves, who are expected to compete for the district championship as well as the regional championship as well in 4A Division. The competition for Lambert will help the Texans prepare for what is expected to be another long postseason run.
“That’s a caliber team right there that we would probably see round three or round four of the regional championship round,” Lambert said. “So it’s just preparing us for that level of competition. It allows us to see the level that we need to play at. We’ve got some younger guys that it’s time for them to step up and understand what it takes.”
Wimberley will wrap up fall camp this week, ending with their second scrimmage of the year against La Vernia this Thursday.
