Published: November 04, 2008 12:50 am      

Playing for pride

For coaches, all they can do is get their team ready

Friday night will come later this week and for the Tigers’ seniors, the knowledge of missing the playoffs will surely be replaced by putting on the blue and gold for the last time.

For the Tigers’ coaching staff, it will be the end of a different kind of week.

Players come and go in high school varsity programs, some of them playing just one season and others for two or three. Sometimes there is the rare freshman, like maybe Robert Adkinson and Johnathan Anderson this season, who stick around for four seasons, and they become a little more of a fixture in a program.

But the coaches, they are here every year, until they are gone. And while Tigers coach Dave Henigan and his staff no doubt are wondering what the future holds after missing the playoffs for a second straight season, this space today is devoted to the here and now, not speculation of what might happen.

I asked Henigan during our usual meeting Monday what it's like going into a Week 10 game with the playoffs being the longest of long shots -- the Tigers need Midlothian to beat Waco by 18 or more points, something that's not going to happen.

I asked because in 16 years, from Corsicana to Arlington to Duncanville to Plano and back to Corsicana, I've never been in this situation.

This will be the first time I've covered a meaningless Week 10 game.

“It's tough,” said Henigan, who will complete his fifth season as head coach Friday. “I've never not been in the playoffs ever until the last two years, so it's not good. It's hard on us.

“We (the coaches) invest our lives in a lot of different things, one of which is winning."

It should make you feel for the coaches, even if you agree or don't agree with going for it on fourth down or running a Spread offense.

In this season of "sacrifice" being trumpeted by one of our presidential candidates, think of what these guys do and the hours they put in, and then think about what it must feel like to watch the playoffs slip away in Waco and then last Friday against Waxahachie.

"It's a big letdown," Tigers defensive coordinator Blaine Stoops said. "We begin working in the offseason with the goal of being in the hunt for the district championship and a playoff run. So as coaches we have worked 11 months, sacrificing time with our families toward that goal and when it doesn't happen it is very disappointing."

And so how do the coaches get through what wouls seem like a miserable week?

Easy. You prepare your players as if you need a win to make the playoffs. A game plan has been installed for Cleburne, one that Henigan said Monday is a good one. You practice like you do every week, getting the players as ready to play as possible.

"We have to do right by the kids and the school we represent. As a coach professional takes over," said Stoops, who will not coach in the playoffs for the third time in 21 years of coaching. "I think we learn that is not something to be taken for granted."

And so on Friday night, the true Tiger fan will make the trip to Cleburne, and pay respect to the coaches and the players who have sacrificed hours and hours since August, trying to make Friday night memorable for everyone, from their parents to their friends. Even scribes too.

"I prefer to only learn from winning, but you find out your true character when your back is against the wall," Henigan said. “Hopefully there’s a lesson learned in there for our players.”