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Fresh faces may energize young Tigers By Emily Grobe Changes in the Thrall Tigers’ football schedule may mean a better year than the last for a young and inexperienced squad. The Tigers will be working with a number of new variables this season, including new coaches. Former assistant coach Gary Schulz has taken over as the head coach and new athletic director and is excited about the possibilities facing his team. “We have a fresh face of staff members with high energy levels,” Schulz said. “This is definitely going to be a reload for us. Our kids are going to be exciting to watch and excited to play.” The Tigers will begin practice Aug. 4, along with nearly every other football program in the area and will scrimmage Brazos Christian Academy and Burton to get ready for games. In setting the schedule, Schulz went for “fresh blood” to bring something different to his team, which will be getting hands-on training. A former scrimmage team, Moody will host the Tigers to open the season. From there, Thrall will see some “smash mouth” football with Jarrel and Lago Vista and more finesse out of Flatonia, who Schulz expects will be a good prep team for the unpredictable district schedule. A number of questions loom in this unarguably difficult district this year. Bartlett, Granger and Milano (along with Thrall) have all had staffing changes that include a head coach. Like Thrall, Bartlett will be changing their offense, switching to the veer-type offense that Granger has run the past two years. Thrall is picked third in the district by Dave Campbell’s Texas Football magazine, and Schulz said he was “pleasantly surprised” by that. The Tigers will open district with back-to-back away games, with Granger being second. Their only two home games will be against Thorndale and Milano. Schulz said the team will be a contender and he feels confident in the new energy the team will have. “We will be strong as a team,” Schulz said. “The Tigers as a whole are all stars.”
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