Palestine WILDCATS
Leaving
The Past Behind
T he prognosticators have already written the script for East Texas’ s District of Doom and they didn’ t leave much room for the Palestine Wildcats.
Flip through the pages of the preseason high school football magazine and you will see the brutal reality facing Palestine.
The district boasts four teams ranked in the state’ s preseason Top 25: Lindale sits at No. 2, Kilgore at No. 4, Pine Tree at No. 13 and Chapel Hill at No. 21.
When the experts mapped out the predicted order of finish, Palestine was slotted near the bottom, ahead of only Jacksonville and Bullard.
Coming off back-to-back 1-9 seasons, it’ s easy to see why outsiders are skeptical.
But inside the fieldhouse, new head coach Ty Robinson isn’ t reading the previews. He isn’ t looking backward, either.
“ I believe the past is last,” Robinson said.“ You can’ t do anything about the past. The future may never come so do your best every day. I’ m not really worried about preseason prognostics. It’ s just: what do we have to do today? What are we going to try to get accomplished this week? Where do we want to be in a month? We are very process-oriented.”
For Robinson, taking over the Wildcats has been a whirlwind. He was hired late in the spring, meeting his new roster literally on the final day of the school year. He inherited a program starved for wins and a coaching staff with multiple vacancies to fill.
“ The first six weeks or so was definitely like drinking from a fire hydrant,” Robinson said.“ But it’ s slowed down the past couple of weeks. The administration has been tremendously supportive in getting the coaches we need. The kids have been great as far as showing up and being responsive to a new way of doing things.”
The new standard: Routine over hype
That“ new way” isn’ t a secret playbook or a collection of flashy gimmicks. It’ s a rigid, uncompromising commitment to structure.
“ We have a way we start things in the weight room, there’ s a way we do things in the weight room and there’ s a way we do our mat routine,” Robinson said.“ There’ s a way we do a dynamic stretch before practice, there’ s a way that we organize practices. It’ s just what we’ ve learned that works— what’ s been successful at the places I’ ve been at previously. We are just doing those things to fit what we need here at Palestine.”
If you are looking for a team which runs a wide-open,“ cute and fancy” spread offense, look elsewhere. Palestine’ s new identity is forged in iron and sweat. Robinson wants a team that mirrors the hard-working, blue-collar community it represents.
“ It’ s going to be my hope that we’ re going to be very disciplined and very physical,” Robinson said.“ We’ re not going to try to be cute and fancy. We’ re going to try to turn every game into just a fistfight. Maybe you whip us, but it’ s going to take all 48 minutes to do that.”
To execute that vision, the Wildcats will rely on a grounded, physical offensive approach. They will shift between the shotgun and under-center looks with one primary objective: running the football down the opponent’ s throat.
“ First and foremost, we want to be physical and run the football,” Robinson said.“ That is the trademark. We’ ll take our chances with play action, play great special teams and play great defense. If you can run the ball and play great defense, you’ re going to have a chance to win a lot of games.” Defensively, Palestine will counter with a multiple front designed to disguise coverages and stifle the district’ s high-powered offenses.
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