UNFINISHED
BUSINESS
FOXES FUEL 2026 FIRE WITH MEMORY OF PLAYOFF LOSS
By Alex Havardansky
The Caddo Mills Foxes are gearing up for another season on the gridiron and lately the team has built up a streak of success since the turn of the decade. That success has largely been anchored by the team’ s veteran head coach and athletic director Kodi Crane.
Crane came over as the head of Caddo Mills athletics from Gonzales High School in 2019 and has brought a culture of winning and deep playoff runs to the Foxes.
The team has made the playoffs every year of Crane’ s tenure including a regular season best 12-1 record in 2020 and the team’ s deepest run to the playoffs in his tenure with a regional finals appearance against Gilmer.
“ We tell our kids preparation really starts when last football season’ s over,” Crane said.
When it comes to the identity Crane wants for the team coming into this season he preached a simple three word message, toughness and attitude.
“ Overall we feel like this is a pretty mature team,” Crane said.“ We have communicated with our kids what we think were strong at and what we need to improve. Setting high goals is great but to achieve those goals, you’ re attitude and work ethic need to match those goals. They need to understand the importance of what they’ re doing and the welding of the team.”
Since then, the team continues to be strong in the regular season and has made the area round multiple times.
Despite a strong regular season record last year, finishing 7-3 with a 4-2 district record, things came to an end in the postseason earlier than the Foxes hoped in the playoffs, losing in their bi-district matchup against Canton 20-7.
Even in the defeat, Crane makes sure that the grind doesn’ t stop for those on the team as he already starts mentally prepping them for next season.
18 END ZONE | 2026