Andy Howard has been through four challenging seasons as head coach of the Goldthwaite Eagles. From an 0-10 finish in his first season (2022) to initially low attendance for summer conditioning, Howards and his Eagles have faced their share of adversity.
But in the last two seasons, the Eagles made progress – even with young rosters. They finished 7-5 in 2024 and 8-4 in 2025. It marked Goldthwaite’s first seasons with back-to-back playoff wins since 2012-13.
When Cross Plains coach Jared Sanderson hired former Eastland coach Bobby Schuman to be his defensive coordinator, he knew he’d be getting an excellent athlete in Schuman’s son, Kye.
The only question was where he would play the then-junior to maximize his impact for the team.
After starting the 2025 season at quarterback, Kye Schuman ended up finding a home at running back and linebacker for the Buffaloes. But the versatile standout left an impression on his coach with both his ability and willingness to contribute wherever he was needed.
For second-year Cross Plains head coach Jared Sanderson, the 2025 season was an exercise in foundation-laying. While Sanderson was promoted from Daniel Purvis’ staff after the former longtime Buffaloes coach left for Plains, he brought a number of schematic and philosophical changes to the program that he knew would take time to implement.
The Buffs, who switched from the spread to a power run-based scheme on offense and the 3-4 to a four-man front on defense, experienced some growing pains but battled through them to go 4-7 and reach the playoffs for the 10th time in 11 years.
And now that that transition year is in the rearview, the coach is hoping a talented group of returners can help Cross Plains take the next step in a difficult district that features perennial toughies Albany, Stamford and Goldthwaite, in addition to fellow playoff hopefuls Hamlin and Miles.
ALBANY — The dean Big Country coaches is back at it again.
Every year since 1987, Albany’s Denney Faith has guided the Lions through two-a-days, scrimmages and eventually the season.
After 22 district titles, six trips to state title games, two state championships and a 379-116-4, the future Big Country Hall of Famer (we assume) will be wearing the headset for his 40th season.
We now converse with Faith about his experience at Albany and his future in this Big Country Preps Q&A.
ALBANY — With only five offensive and four defensive starters back among just 13 lettermen, there will be a lot of fresh young faces in the Albany camp in 2026. And despite their being some promising young talent on hand, veteran coach Denney Faith isn’t making any assumptions heading into this season.
Promising on paper doesn’t always translate to performance on the field, so the dean of Big Country football mentors is taking a wait-and-see approach while he and his staff work to find the best combinations — particularly on the offensive line.
“Anytime you lose some valuable seniors, they’re going to be hard to replace,” said Faith, who has been the varsity coach at Albany since 1987 with an overall record of 379-116-4. “We feel like we have a good core group coming back, especially at our skill positions. We think we can be good there if we can give them some protection from the offensive line.
“That’s where (graduation) really hit us the most.”
Seymour coach Tarrington Rivers is a man with Big Country ties, having coached under Rocky Smart at Clyde.
And with Seymour often playing teams from the Big Country, he has kept tabs on the area for years.
Now that his Seymour Panthers are joining the Big Country Preps coverage area in 2026, coach Rivers speaks with us on joining BCP, his philosophies on football and Seymour community in this introductory Q&A with Evan Ren.
SEYMOUR — One of the new members of the Big Country Preps family, Seymour has reason for optimism heading into the 2026 campaign after battling through a 2-8 season with a young club last season.
The Panthers have seven starters back on both sides of the ball among 20 lettermen after losing only six players with experience from a year ago.
“We’ve been really young in fact we’ve got four or five players who will end up being four-year starters,” second-year coach Tarrington Rivers said. “We carried about 12 sophomores last year, one of whom played a lot of minutes and we’ve got all of those guys back.”
Rivers now has his system in place with capable skill personnel, more overall size up front and a defense he expects to improve a great deal. There are, however, a few objectives to achieve in order for the Panthers to make a significant splash this year.
Having had four coaches since 2020, the Munday Moguls have struggled to find consistency following a dominant run led by Patrick Corcoran that saw the Moguls claim two state championships.
Over the offseason, MHS turned to Mineral Wells offensive coordinator Jeff Ward to see if he could help return the program to the standard that was in place in most of the early 21st century.
Ward, who has 19 years of coaching experience, is excited about the opportunity that presents itself as he takes over a program for the first time in his career.
GAME PHOTOS PROVIDED BY KRISTI GIBSON
HASKELL — At 5-11 and 185 pounds, He’s not the biggest linebacker in the area, not by a long shot. Nor is he the fastest, with a solid-but-not-blazing 40 time of 4.7.
There is, however, one thing you can be certain of: If Haskell’s Beaux Shaginaw gets his hands on someone: they’re going down.
Now entering his senior season with the Indians, Shaginaw is coming off an eye-popping junior campaign that saw him chart 167 tackles, nine tackles for loss and three forced fumbles.
“He’s the anchor on our defense,” Haskell coach Creighton Henderson said. “He led the team and led the area in tackles. He’s a guy who’s always around the ball, he’s really hard to block and he’s always getting in there and hitting someone in the face.”
HASKELL — The numbers aren’t overwhelming, but there’s reason for optimism in the Haskell camp in 2026.
After losing 13 lettermen, the Indians still return seven offensive and six defensive starters from last year’s 6-5 playoff team, several of whom are showing some promise.
To begin with, the Indians return a solid, experienced group of skill personnel, spearheaded by senior quarterback Haegen Pinkerton (1,321 yards passing, 13 TDs, 1,767 rushing, 22 TDs).
But secondly and perhaps most importantly, Haskell’s offensive line is mammoth by 2A standards and may supply the push up front to give those skill people plenty of room to operate.
After graduating a 13-player senior class that was responsible for the bulk of his team’s production in 2025, Roscoe coach Dan Loyd entered his first full offseason as the Plowboys coach looking for a new crop of leaders to emerge.
With a young roster that will feature a number of juniors in key positions, he found what he was looking for in seniors Mason Alford and Alan Montoya.
While more on the quiet side vocally, Alford and Montoya have brought exactly the type of toughness, dependability and grit that Loyd wants to be a hallmark of his program. And the example those two have set has the coach eager to see where they can help take the Plowboys this fall.
Dan Loyd’s first year at Roscoe was something of a whirlwind. The longtime Seymour coach was hired in April, 2025 to replace Jake Freeman and led an experienced Plowboys squad through a tough nondistrict schedule to go 3-2 in district and reach the playoffs for the sixth straight year and 10th time since 2024.
The 3-8 overall record wasn’t quite what he and his squad were hoping for, but way the team fought through adversity to finish the year strong helped lay the foundation for the type of program he wants to build and, he hopes, will serve as a springboard into a more successful Year 2.
While the Plowboys graduated 13 seniors and return just 12 lettermen (four offensive and five offensive starters among them), Loyd is confident that RHS is starting from more sturdy footing in 2026. And he’s excited to see what his squad can do in a new district and region.
With only “two or three juniors” and an expected roster of 24 players, the Big Spring Pathway Academy Warriors are set to make their varsity debut this year, and coach Keegan Clark thinks the sky is the limit for his program.
Despite the lack of upperclassmen, Clark has been encouraged by what he’s seen as the team prepares for the season.
“We’ve been looking all right,” he said. “We are just trying to get everyone ready. We’ve got a bunch of young kids, but I think they’re going to be all right.”
Photos courtesy of Betty Berry
(Note: Texas six-man football historian Leman Saunders contributed to this article).
Jamie Humphries’ induction into the Texas Six-Man Coaches Association Hall of Fame class of 2026 was celebrated on June 20 at Wichita Falls. But Jamie’s journey actually began 11 years ago, when his younger brother Chad Humphries was inducted into the same hall of fame.
After his induction in 2015, Chad said of Jamie, “He was a great athlete. I know he was a better runner than I was. Jamie gave me a lot of motivation. I had big shoes to fill when I became the quarterback. I didn’t want to let the family name down.
“My brother deserves to be in the hall of fame, too,” Chad said. “I totally believe he will be someday.”
Someday came last month.
Gone from Class 1A Division I are names like Stryker Reed and Ry Reed, both of whom are now with different branches of the United States service academies, but a familiar name from Division II has replaced them at Gordon — Keegan Hayes.
The Longhorns, now led by the former Benjamin standout, are aiming to become just the 19th program to ever make it to four straight state championship games per the UIL archives.
Of those, only Fort Hancock (1988-91), Sealy, (1994-97), Celina (1998-2001), Southlake Carroll (2002-06) and Austin Lake Travis (2007-11) have ever won four titles in a row, with FHHS’ representing the only time it’s happened in the six-man ranks.
Here’s a preview of each of the Class 1A Division I districts in the Big Country Preps coverage area with our predictions for 2026.
With two-time defending state champion Jayton moving up to Division I this fall, the race for the Class 1A Division II crown is wide-open heading into the fall as the Big Country dominates the preseason state rankings.
In TAPPS, Abilene Christian saw a change atop the program as former Abilene High offensive coordinator Justin Gorman took over for Kirk Wade and the Panthers are primed to make a traditionally deep playoff run this fall.
Here’s a preview of each of the Class 1A Division II districts in the Big Country Preps coverage area, as well as TAPPS Division II District 1, with our predictions for 2025.
OTHER 2026 ALL-BIG COUNTRY PREPS TEAMS
Our All-Big Country Preps softball and baseball teams, released on Sunday, are in place to honor those who achieved the most on-field success in 2026. It is off the field, however, where character, grit, and work ethic are often measured. And it is with our Big Country Preps All-Hustle Team that we wish to honor those players, male and female, who were (simply put) the hardest-working, best teammates in the area this spring.
This team isn’t about who the best baseball and softball players were.
The All-Hustle team honors effort, discipline, toughness, coachability and selflessness — traits that coaches wish they had in every player and upon which championships are built.
It is for that reason that this team is largely selected by area coaches and described in their own words.
Big Country Preps is now honored to present these individuals to you — the best team players (boys and girls) that the the Big Country had to offer during the 2021 season.
The players below are listed in no particular order.