Legendary Green Bay Packers coach Vince Lombardi once said, “Football is like life – it requires perseverance, self-denial, hard work, sacrifice, dedication and respect for authority.”  For the majority of the Randall Raiders, football really was life.  For the past four years, senior players put these principles into effect every day – and it was these principles that led them to success.

For this group that was a part of back-to-back regional quarterfinal appearances, winning did not always come easy.  As freshmen, the group experienced a miserable losing season.  As sophomores, they started off slow before winning the last five games of the season.  They stuck with head coach Bryan Wood despite a 1-9 record in his first year replacing the highly popular Ken Plunk.  This group believed.  They worked relentlessly, and they never gave up.  They fought all the way to the end – until the final whistle marked their defeat, and for most, the end of their football careers, at the hands of two-time defending state champion Aledo. 

 “I honestly believe the team had so much success this year because we have the best coaches and great work ethic,” quarterback Austin Castillo said.  “The coaches spent many weekends breaking down film and many long weekdays at practice when they could have been with their families.  But we knew that’s what it took to be successful.”

The hard work put in by both players and coaches paid off.  The Raiders won their first eight games of the season before losing a heartbreaker to Frenship by a score of 29-28.  Despite losing district 3-4A offensive MVP Collin Bowen in the game, the team went on to beat Hereford 41-3 the next week and then rolled off two playoff wins against Little Elm and El Paso Riverside.  It took a team with the credentials of the Aledo Bearcats, led by the nation’s no. 1 running back recruit in Johnathan Gray, to derail the Raiders playoff run.

“Losing is hard,” fullback Ryan Backus said.  “Especially when you’re accustomed to winning.   The opponent makes no difference to me.  It was still hard to swallow.”

Still, Backus said the memories gained on the gridiron are something to cherish.

“Knowing that our class played a role in the past two years is great,” Backus said.  “It leaves behind a legacy not many classes have had.  Still, the things I will remember are not plays or scores, but the friendships I built with my teammates.”

For the senior players, possibly the hardest thing they will face this year will not be workouts or two-a-days, grueling games or painful injuries – not even that final loss.  Castillo said the hardest thing is moving on to life after football.

“Where do we go from here?  I don’t know,” Castillo said.  “I’ve thrown that question around in my head once or twice during the season, yet I never had a good answer for it.  There are a lot of other options out there, but after going through the Randall football program and experiencing all there was to experience, I don’t think any other sport or anything like that could even come close to filling the void there is now in my life.”

It’s been said that the only thing that truly heals the heart is time.  In the future, things will go on.  Every player will go his own separate way to discovering what else life has in store.  But right now, for Castillo and the rest of the senior players, there is nothing.

“Even after losing to Frenship, I knew there would always be the next game to work towards,” Castillo said.  “But with the loss to Aledo, there is nothing.  Nothing to practice for, nothing to wake up early on Monday mornings to gameplan for, nothing to get hyped for, nothing to go to the weight room and push yourself for – football is over.  My daily routine for the past four months has been changed because of last Friday night in Midland.  All those evenings spent in the driveway throwing the football with my dad or Saturday morning Kids Inc. games just seem like a thing of the past now – not that they were wasted or unnecessary – but just knowing there won’t be another real reason for me to pick up a football is tough – tougher than anything I have ever had to deal with before.”