For the past two weeks the Rockdale Tigers have been preparing to play a brand new team in a brand new stadium.
During their bye week, players focused on improving their offense, setting up house and getting healthy, according to Jeff Miller, head coach and athletic director.
“We’ve worked on our goal line offense. We also took time to work on the deep pass since we’ve struggled there,” Miller said. “We only practiced on Tuesday and Thursday this past week. On Wednesday, we took time to move everything over to the new field house, so we rested our bodies.”
This week, the Tigers take on the Titans, Friday at 7:30 p.m. in the new Tiger Stadium. Last Friday, over 300 people attended the Tiger Stadium open house, see story on page 7A.
The Titans began their inaugural season in September. Unlike many new programs the Tigers have faced like Bryan-Rudder (2007) and College Station (2012), Manor New Tech is a STEM school with a focus on science, technology, engineering and mathematics, and most of their football players have never even played football before.
Titan Head Coach and Athletic Director Quincy Williams said, “We’re starting from Pop Warner basically. I’ve been teaching football basics to our players like how to line up, or what the positions are called.”
Williams said that it’s been different having to slow down and coach the game.
“A lot of the teams we play are full of guys who have been playing football at least since seventh grade,” Williams said. “Our guys didn’t even have an off-season in the spring. They started getting ready for this year’s season at the beginning of August when two-a-days began.”
The Titans are currently 1-4 with a win over East-side Memorial 36-0. Friday, they lost their first district game against Academy 56-0. Rockdale is 3-1 this season and moved up to the No. 10 spot in the Class 3A rankings by the Texas Associated Press.
“I don’t know a whole lot about the situation, but I know he’s a really neat guy,” Miller said about Coach Williams.
“It’s been a process, but the guys have absorbed everything, and really want to play,” Williams said. “Ninety-five percent of them show up to our Saturday morning workouts, and that shows to me that they really want to get better.
“My goal is to get this program to grow,” said Williams. “But the most important is make sure I help them become good people, and can go out and get good jobs.”
10-3A-1 STANDINGS
Team Season District
W-L W-L Rockdale 3-1 0-0 Cameron 3-1 1-0 Jarrell 3-2 1-0 Troy 3-2 0-1 Academy 2-3 1-0 Lago Vista 1-4 0-1 New Tech 1-4 0-1 Last week: Cameron 39, Troy 26; Jarrell 31, Lago Vista 15; Little River Academy 56, Manor New Tech 0. This week: Troy at Jarrell; St. John XXIII at Cameron; Lago Vista at Academy.
2018 SCHEDULE
DATE p OPPONENT
31 t iddi Oct. 5 Manor New Tech* Oct. 12 at Lago Vista*
Oct. 19 Troy*
Oct. 26 at Cameron* Nov. 2 Jarrell* Nov. 9 at Academy*
7:30 kickoff, homecoming
in bold. *District
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