The Compass Academy football team enters its fifth year with a new head coach, a bigger coaching staff and no shortage of returning players.
Former head coach Floyd White — who prior to Compass Academy, was the defensive coordinator at Midland Legacy — left in April to take over at Pampa.
Replacing him is another Legacy assistant as Boe Smith enters his debut season with the Cougars.
Smith, who was the co-offensive coordinator and offensive line coach at Legacy, takes over a program that’s been gradually getting better in its short history.
The Cougars are coming off a 4-7 overall, 2-4 in district record from last year that included a bi-district loss in the playoffs to Early.
“I’m really excited,” Smith said. “The main thing, having my family here, is the most important thing. My wife works here. My kids go here … Working with coach White for six years and having kids that go here and knowing the players that are here and knowing how hard they work and how hard White worked to turn this program around, that was more important than anything else.”
With eight players back on offense and nine on defense, Compass looks to improve this year.
Smith, who was hired in the spring, wasted no time getting started.
“I got to come over during the spring. I watched the kids work out and introduced myself early,” Smith said. “Got to see them do 7-on-7 during the summer and I’m really excited to be a part of this. The kids are amazing. We’ve been working with seventh-twelfth graders during the summer and we had a bunch come in for workouts and we’re really excited to be here and the kids are proving that.”
It’s safe to say that Compass Academy football is in a better place than it was in 2020.
The Cougars won only two games through the first two seasons before White entered.
Now the team is coming off consecutive 4-7 seasons and Smith looks to continue that progress.
“Coach White and I are different people, but there’s the same philosophy and the same beliefs. To go from having two coaches on staff and then having four last year and now this year, we’re at eight, Compass is doing some things right and the right way. We’re trying to build on that. We’re keeping everything going.”
A big strength for this year’s team will be its secondary which returns all but one player.
“Really, the biggest strength for us is we have the almost whole back end of the secondary back,” Smith said. “We have a lot of guys who played last year. Abdiel Galindo played corner last year and is coming back. Caleb Stout is coming back. Braxton Morris played safety last year and is coming back. Most of those guys are juniors anyway so there’s a lot of experience under their belt and we’re looking to continue for them to get more experience in the back end. We’re building our defense around our secondary. We feel like that’s a strength more than anything.”
Those same guys have also played at receiver.
“They’re tall and very athletic,” Smith said. “They move well and jump well. We feel like those guys in the back, our receiver corps is going to be a big asset for us. Our linebackers are playing well right now. We have a good rotation on both offensive and defensive lines.”
As far as quarterback goes, Kasen Smart comes in with experience.
“Our quarterback Kasen started for us last year and then we have a freshman who’s going to challenge him,” Smith said. “It’s the experience coming back but it’s also the depth that we’re beginning to create. We have kids pushing each other for positions. This program has been built and we’re making it even better.”
The schedule will have a lot of similarities to last year.
The team will open the season on Aug. 30 at Sterling City before hosting Iraan Sept. 6 at Ratliff Stadium.
The Cougars will then face Reagan County and Idalou on the road before beginning district play.
The team will scrimmage this week against Seagraves and against Wink next week.
“I think what we’re looking forward to more than anything else from last year is we get to scrimmage this week against Seagraves and Wink,” Smith said. “Wink’s a perennial power. Then, we also have Reagan County which is returning a lot of players from last year. We expect them to be a good team. They have good athletes. We think that’ll be a good measuring stick. We think Wink will be a good measuring stick. We also have Idalou and then we have some teams that we played last year like Iraan and Sterling City. We have to see how much we’ve improved ourselves.”
The Cougars will have spot already in the postseason after being placed in a four-team District 3-3A Division II that includes Crane, Alpine and Anthony.
Just like last year, this year’s district schedule will include a double-round robin.
“As far as district goes, the team to beat is Crane,” Smith said. “That’s our measuring stick. Alpine is also a big measuring stick. If you want win district, you have to beat those teams because they’ve been at the top of it. We’re excited about playing those teams. They have a lot of experience coming back. Talking to coach (Robert) Ontiveros, he’s a good guy and they’re going to throw the ball a little bit more but they’re going to run the football and they’re pretty good, defensively. Coach Andy Smith at Alpine is very similar to us with his expectations that he has of his kids. We’re really looking forward to testing ourselves early and where we are as a team. I don’t think we want to look too far though. Yesterday was yesterday and we’re looking at what we have right now. We’re telling the players to focus on one segment at a time, focus on one play at a time and what we have right now. Don’t get too far ahead and don’t definitely don’t be looking back behind.”
