Published: September 05, 2006 07:23 pm            

Sneed puts years of experience to work

Weatherford Kangaroos head football coach Mike Sneed has seen a lot of football players and evaluated a lot of talent throughout his 33-year coaching career, but he thinks the 2006 Roos are the most talented team he has coached in all of that time.

“Without a doubt, this is the most talented team we have had,” Sneed said. “There is no doubt in my mind. We have a lot of depth and we have a lot of good skill kids. The offensive line is a question mark, but we’ve got a lot of really good kids there.

“We probably have what should be our best defense since we have been here. I think all the arrows point to us having one of the better years Weatherford has had, and certainly we would like to build on what happened last year and do better than what we did last year.”

One key to how well Weatherford will do this season is the number of seniors on the Roos roster. Sneed said this is the largest group of seniors he has ever had on any of his teams.

“Having a large group of seniors is always reassuring for the coach because it means that you’re doing something right when you’re keeping all those kids out,” Sneed said. “A lot of those kids have been with the program since the seventh grade. I know that the norm is that if you have a lot of seniors, you are going to have good leadership.

“Seniors are normally at the mode where they just want to win. They want to be successful and go out as winners and this is an awfully good group of seniors this year and I hope it pays us good dividends. In the past, when I have had a pretty good group of seniors, we have had success and I think that’s a huge advantage for us this year.”

During his coaching career, Sneed has been a part of two state championships. Both came while he was at Grapevine in 1996 and 1998 and he hopes to add another to that list in his seventh season with Weatherford.

While Sneed said many of the basics of coaching and having a successful program are the same now as when he began his career, he did admit that there are times when a coach has to adjust.

“Some of the basics are still there, but I think it has changed dramatically,” Sneed said of his coaching style. “When I started in this profession, 30 years ago, it was a lot different than it is today. When you have been around this long, you have got to be flexible and adapt to the new, but there are some basic things that I have stuck with that are basic principles that I believe you have to follow in order to have a winning or successful program.

“I know I always say every year is a new year and you never know what you are going to get, but we go into every season thinking this is going to be our best season yet and we’re making plans to not only win our non-district, but make the playoffs again.”

Sneed said other important parts of Weatherford’s success in 2006 is the attitude of the players and the support of the town.

“I think there is kind of a renewed vigor here at Weatherford High and in our community about finally breaking through that 5A barrier,” Sneed said.

“We have been here in Weatherford, 5A in the late 70s and early 80s and we didn’t have any success at all, now we’re back in 5A and it has taken us five years to finally break through. We finally broke through last year in 2005 to make the playoffs. I think there are some barriers that have been broken down and we’re hoping to just ... you know if you do it one time, it’s a fluke, but if you do it two times in a row, then you can say you have done what you were supposed to.”

Sneed said the success of the 2005 season is the building block for added success in 2006.

“It is huge,” Sneed said. “At some point in time, you have to have something good happen to your team to validate what you’re doing and last year was one of those years. It validated who we were and all the hard work and all of the effort that all the coaches and players have put into it.

“I think with the validation, it gives us an opportunity to be a team that, year in and year out, is going to be pretty good.”

The obvious goal of a coach and or a team is to reach the pinnacle of their sport and claim a state title, but Sneed said there is more to football and the experience that he and his players will have this season than just winning and losing.

“I hope that we send out some young men that have had a positive experience that have had a good time playing the game, who maybe have improved or moved us up a notch on the history ladder as far as what this group will or can accomplish,” Sneed said.

“When you have kids leave the program, you hope that they will come back and see you and that it has been more than just X’s and O’s or football for them. I believe most of our kids here are pretty much blue collar, hard working kids. It is a great group to work with. They show up here every day and get after it. As a coach, if you can teach kids to do that on a daily basis in football, they will learn to do it in the real world where you’ve got to get up and go to work every day and do your job and do it to the best of your ability. That is what we’re striving to try to be here and do.”

        

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