The Bronchos football players took up some different instructions this week.
Of course, they’re used to taking on plenty of direction from their coaches, all throughout the rigorous rhythm of football season.
‘Be here on time,’ the players will be told.
‘Run it again,’ they’ll hear, between scout team plays at practice.
‘Get on the line,’ they’ll hear, before conditioning sprints.
But this past weekend, as the Bronchos looked to their coaches after a disheartening loss to San Angelo Central, disappointed and solemn with the aches and pains to match after six straight weeks of game action, the players got new assignments:
‘Go see a movie.’
‘Play some video games.’
‘Relax.’
With an open date on the schedule this week, the Odessa High football team took some time this past weekend to heal up, recharge and refocus ahead of the season’s home stretch.
The Bronchos have a bye week and will return to action for their first of four straight games to close the season Oct. 20 at Midland Lee.
“We told them to get away from football a little bit, and just relax, clear their minds, and try to come back refreshed this week ready to go,” Odessa High head coach Danny Servance said in his coach’s office on Monday.
Monday, after a weekend off, the team got back together to watch film from last Friday night’s 38-20 loss to San Angelo Central — something the team usually does on Saturday mornings just after Friday night games.
But with some time to heal up, finally, and get their minds off of four straight losses, the Bronchos took advantage, eventually returning to the practice field Tuesday for a lighter workout in shells before trying to get back toward full swing on the practice field today.
Odessa High has plenty of bumps and bruises to go around after six game weeks, and after four straight disappointing losses have dropped the Bronchos to 2-4 overall and 0-2 in District 2-6A, the opportunity to take a step back and breathe might prove critical.
The Bronchos have worked to do just that before they return to a regular game-week schedule next week ahead of their matchup with Midland Lee.
“These guys have been going since last offseason, into spring ball, into 7-on-7, into strength and conditioning, into two-a-days — so it’s been a constant grind for them, so yeah, sometimes you need to just step away and clear your mind and try to recharge and make this last-ditch run here the second half of district,” Servance said.
>> HEAL UP: Several Bronchos players should benefit from the extra week in trying to get back to 100-percent by the Midland Lee game.
Junior quarterback Trey Smith was helped off the field with an apparent leg injury late in last Friday’s game with Central, and didn’t return. Senior defensive end Joseph Chavez had to be helped off at another point, though he did return to the game.
Two weeks ago, junior receiver Tyrone Caufield and junior offensive lineman Ke’Evan Majors both left the Amarillo Tascosa game with arms in slings.
Meanwhile, a player like linebacker Oscar Lucio, who missed the first five weeks of the season with a foot injury, will take up the chance to get that much closer to game-shape conditioning after several weeks off his feet.
After 14 days between games, those players and other Bronchos working through bumps and bruises will be 14 days closer to full strength and full speed by the time they take on Midland Lee.
>> AMEN CORNER: It’s been a long season for Odessa High — yet with four District 2-6A games left to close the season, the Bronchos’ biggest goals are still on the table going into this massive home stretch.
Odessa High plays at Midland Lee in Grande Communications Stadium in Midland, before closing the season with three straight games in Ratliff Stadium.
The Bronchos will host Wolfforth Frenship on Oct. 27, dress in the visitors’ locker room at Ratliff for the rivalry meeting with Permian on Nov. 3, then close the regular season there against Midland High on Nov. 10.
There’s still opportunity ahead for the Bronchos to make noise in District 2-6A and get to where they want to be.
“Everything that we want to accomplish is still right there in front of us,” Servance said.
Odessa High has opened the district season with a pair of competitive losses to Amarillo Tascosa and San Angelo Central, but the Bronchos still have their eyes on making their mark on the district this season — and their mark in school history, if they could become just the 15th playoff team in school history in 97 seasons of football at Odessa High.
It’d take a huge late run to make a lot of those goals come to fruition — but Servance, for one, has seen it happen before.
In Servance’s first season as head coach at Lubbock Estacado in 2007, the Matadors made one of those big runs.
“We started slow, and then, there towards the end, we picked it up,” Servance recalled Monday.
“We got hot at the right time.”
The Matadors finished the regular season 4-6 that year, but managed to punch their ticket to the playoffs in district play, then, in the postseason, earned bi-district and area round wins before losing in the regional semifinals.
“Toward the end of the season, we knocked a few people off in district play and then went into the playoffs with a lot of confidence, and playing well and having some momentum, and before you knew it we were in the third round of the playoffs my first year there,” Servance said.
Now, with four games left, reloaded and refocused, the Bronchos are aiming to put together a magic run of their own.
“I have been through that and I’ve seen it happen, and when you gain confidence, man, there’s just no end to how good you can be when you believe in yourself and what your team can do,” Servance said.
