A year ago, as coach Ryan Pannell was just settling into his new office after being named the football coach at Winters, there were more questions than answers.

Pannell and the Blizzards were already being tasked with a daunting challenge, which was how to reverse a trend that had seen the program accumulate just 17 wins since 2019. In fact, Winters hadn’t had a winning season since 2018, when it went 8-5.

To put that in perspective, among the players Pannell inherited or recruited out of the school’s halls for his first season, most of the seniors were just 10-year-olds riding bikes the last time the school enjoyed the kind of success rewarded with a playoff berth.

The 2025 squad didn’t reverse the trend — at least not in the standings, finishing 2-8. But the Blizzards did show a lot of fight toward the end of the season by snapping a five-game scoreless streak with 32 points in their final two games.

Two of the primary mainstays during the late rally go by the name of Martinez. Coy, the quarterback, wound up the year completing 71 of 173 passes for 1,079 yards and 10 touchdowns. His brother Nolan was second on the team in receiving, hauling in 19 passes for 415 yards and seven scores. He also added 48 yards and a touchdown when called on as a rusher. And he even spelled his brother behind center on occasion.

On the surface, what the Winters Blizzards accomplished on the football field last fall was pretty nondescript, save for a magical evening in late September when they did a lot of things right en route to a 59-0 thumping of Abilene TLCA.

The victory was one of only two the Blizzards mustered in 2025 — against eight defeats. Overall, Winters scored 136 points, gave up 375 and generally was outmanned almost every time it took the field.

No matter. That wasn’t the ultimate measure of what coach Ryan Pannell and Co. were able to do in his first season at the helm of a program that hasn’t recorded as many as four wins since 2020.