Panthers’ success a byproduct of hard work, preparation

Before the Colleyville Heritage football team played Euless Trinity back in September, we wrote this: “September is about December.”

Everything that head football coach Joe Willis put into this program was about changing what would be accepted and what would not.

The Panthers were not scheduling for wins. They were scheduling to become a better program. September would offer the blueprint for how this program could shed its image of being decent but nothing more.

For the second time in school history, Colleyville Heritage (10-3) is playing a football game in December. The Panthers play No. 4 Denton Ryan (13-0) in the Class 5A Division I Region I championship at 10:30 a.m. Saturday at AT&T Stadium in Arlington.

Colleyville Heritage went 1-2 in a non-district schedule that included Class 5A No. 1 Aledo (still playing) and 6A power Euless Trinity, which went 7-3 and pushed No. 1 Allen in the 6A Division I bi-district round. Since then, the Panthers are 9-1.

“His message was to never back down from a challenge,” senior running back Mario Ortiz said of Willis. “He holds expectations of us. He expects us to get to December just like he did at Cedar Park. He has faith in us. We didn’t have those expectations. But now we do.”

For this year’s senior class, the 2016 season has represented some stability. Willis is the fourth coach of their career. Mike Fuller’s final year was 2013, before he moved on to Decatur. Darren Allman was the head coach in 2014 before he took the Carroll AD job in the spring of 2015. Judd Thrash held the interim role as he guided the program through spring football. Willis arrived at the end of May.

Building a culture takes time. This program needed to be tougher. The byproduct was finding the resolve to beat Lubbock Coronado 43-34 after blowing a big lead. The byproduct was making this run despite not having one of the top playmakers on this team in wide receiver Ke’Von Ahmad in the lineup. Ahmad has missed the last four games with a deep thigh bruise. The byproduct has been seeing senior quarterback Cam Roane make big throw after big throw to keep this season going.

“That’s why we scheduled the way we scheduled,” Wills said. “That’s a certain level of football you have to prepare for this type of game [against Ryan]. Our kids are at a point where they’re not intimidated by anyone. There is no road map because everything is ongoing.”

Willis uses the word “focus” with his team every year and designates the letter F to stand for something. For 2016, F stands for “finish.”

“You can see it,” Denton Ryan coach Dave Henigan said. “I don’t see the team that committed five turnovers and had nearly 200 yards in penalties against Grapevine. They’re crisp and good on defense. That shows you what they’re all about. We have our hands full.”

Update

▪  Besides Ahmad, who is doubtful, the Panthers are dealing with some injuries that he may know more about later in the week. Willis said he is watching the undisclosed injuries with junior linebacker Duece Nesbit, senior offensive guard Jacob Kramer and sophomore strong safety Collin Losack.

“We just don’t know anything,” Willis said. “But we hope to have them Saturday.”

▪  With 10 wins, the program has matched a single-season record for wins in a season. That matches the 2001, 2006 and 2012 team’s win totals.

This story was originally published November 28, 2016 at 2:00 PM with the headline "Panthers’ success a byproduct of hard work, preparation."