Memorial’s first football season ended before Thanksgiving break with a 28-21 loss to No. 4 Argyle.
Head coach Marc Bindel feels the first season went well overall, with the players setting high expectations for future teams. The Mavericks finished 9-3 and won a playoff game.
“Obviously last Friday I was very disappointed, but looking back on it, I thought we did a lot of good things and set a standard for what we want teams in the future to be,” Bindel said. “Make the playoffs, compete for district championships. It didn’t go our way that night, but sometimes that’s how the game goes.
“I was really proud of our effort. I was proud of how we battled and fought tooth and nail against one of the best teams in the state.”
Memorial opened the season with a 47-20 win over O.D. Wyatt. The Mavericks finished second in district with a 5-1 record, losing to district champion Abilene Wylie on a last-second field goal.
But the next week, Memorial came back and won against Lubbock-Cooper 44-43 by scoring on the game’s final play.
“The Lubbock-Cooper game would stick out to me,” Bindel said. “We had a lot of battles with their coaching staff at previous schools, and to start that rivalry at Memorial in the fashion that we won, on the last-second play then going for two. But then also to do something that no other WFISD team had ever done was really special.”
After taking time to celebrate and reflect on the accomplishments of this season, Bindel will soon begin preparations for the next one.
“That’s the thing about football, you just start over and go after it again,” Bindel said. “The guys that were juniors, now they have a standard set for them, they’ve got to go match that. Our seniors worked so hard, so our juniors that will become seniors, they now have to be the leaders. So we’ll kind of start that transition, but it’s just keep working and getting after it.”
