WEST ORANGE, Texas — West Orange Stark hasn't had a new head coach in over a decade.
Similar to when coach Cornel Thompson took over for Dan R. Hooks, the next up has some big shoes to fill.
"When you're here at West Orange, I mean Friday night is the night," said head coach Hiawatha Hickman. "I can't wait to run through that gate with those Mustangs and hit that field, and just let those guys go to work."
Hiawatha Hickman is the new man in charge on the gridiron.
"One of the things that I always aspired to be was a head coach and I got here and been here for seven years," said Coach Hickman. "My building principal and superintendent I built a relationship with them and had a great relationship with the kids. And I just thought, you know why not now?"
Coach Hickman says he's seen what works in the program and will continue that while also doing things his way.
"The Biggest commodity we have at West Orange-Stark is our kids," said Coach Hickman. "As long as those kids walk through those doors, we've got a chance to win every football game we in and I know that. So I'm not gonna come here and make drastic changes and try to reinvent the wheel. We're going to line up and play sound defense. We're going to play offense, use best what we have, speed. And take advantage of what we do best."
The players are the program and Coach Hickman wants them to be the focus, doing what he can to help his players succeed.
"They trust me to do what's right for them and that's what I told them," said Coach Hickman. "This program is about them. The superintendent's vision is to run this thing like a college program. You know we're bringing in strength & conditioning coaches. We're bringing in the academic coordinators and all this is to help them. And that's what I talked about them in the first meeting. Hey this is y'alls program. This is about y'all, I'm going to do everything I can to help this program move forward."