HICO — Last year, injuries deprived Hico of what might have been a playoff season without them. A depleted Tigers squad struggled through a 3-7 campaign, missing the postseason by a single win.

After going 2-3 through the nondistrict portion of its schedule, Hico saw one-score losses to quality teams from De Leon (21-14) and Crawford (14-10) serve as perfect and painful punctuation marks to the poetic injustice.

With just eight lettermen back from that team, including five offensive and four defensive starters, the Tigers will face depth issues once again in 2019. But coach Randy Thornton feels HHS can get back to the playoffs if this year’s group can avoid the injury bug that hit last year’s so hard.