Grapeland SANDIES
New year, new goals
Grapeland looking to be more physical in 2026
The Grapeland Sandies come into the 2026 season with a different mindset according to head coach Jordan Wood.
The Sandies, ranked No. 22 in the state by Dave Campbell’ s Texas Football Magazine, look to improve on last year’ s 8-4 season in a new District 11-2A, Division II.
“ Oh, we’ re excited,” Wood said.“ We think they’ re going to be just a tough-nosed football team. We’ re going to play hard and be a physical team. We got to play complete games on both sides of the ball.”
Grapeland is in the district with the No. 16 ranked Overton Mustangs, No. 25 ranked Alto Yellowjackets, the Mount Enterprise Wildcats, Tenaha Tigers and Cross Roads Bobcats.
“ People are really high on Alto,” Woods said.“ They have a lot of athletes over there. And then you have Overton, who brought back, it seems like, everybody and they’ re adding some young guys that are really talented as well. And so, um I believe there’ s three teams ranked in the top 25, and our district the last couple years were really good.”
The nondistrict schedule will be a test as well with teams like Elkhart, Lovelady, Frankston and Groveton in the first month.
“ We want to compete well and get better and stay healthy,” Wood said.“ We have those young guys out there that are learning. We want them to catch up fast and compete hard and we don’ t want the game to be too big for them. We just want to get better every week so we’ re ready to roll once the district gets here.”
The Sandies have talent coming back in senior linebacker and running back Diego Fajardo. Fajardo is the preseason district defensive most valuable player, according to Dave Campbell’ s Texas Football.
“ He was a great player for us last year, but Maleek [ Johnson ] carried most of the load,” Wood said.“ He’ ll step up and just have to take on more responsibilities on the offensive side as well. But he was already a really good player for us. He’ s just going to get more of a spotlight on offense now like he has been on defense.”
Wood said to watch out for players like Aiden Owens, Jaylen Woods, Dan Newman and Chunky Gilmore.
“ We still have some real athletic guys that can run,” Woods said.“ We got Eli DeLeon at quarterback and Fajardo at running back. So, we’ ll be a physical team. We just got caught up and on the same page because we don’ t have as much experience returning as we’ ve had the last couple of years.” Wood said fans can expect a different style of football this year.“ The toughness standpoint will be different for a team that plays a complete game on both sides,” Wood said.“ Last year, we were just super explosive. I don’ t know that we’ re going to be able to duplicate that, but we just want to be a very physical team. We want to be a lot more physical this year than we had been in the past and I hope that’ s what what we represent.”
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