The Wylie East Raiders football team is hitting the ground running in the offseason, looking forward to big changes.

The major change at Wylie East is the move up to 6A sports starting in the fall. Moving into District 9-6A with Wylie and Garland ISD, the team is ready to face the challenges ahead. In their early spring workouts, head coach Marcus Gold is seeing that early intensity on display.

“I love how our energy is and how we’re battling through some adversity,” Gold said. “When the offense starts playing well, the defense steps up and vice versa. I think this team has really great chemistry and that says a lot about what we can do in the fall.”

Gold is starting his second season as coach of the Raiders and said he learned a lot in year one. While he had previous head coaching experience, he said that the step up to 5A and preparing to move to 6A helped prepare him for the season ahead.

“It’s all about the building process,” Gold said. “I want to continue to address the little things like being here on time, learning how to do the little things to win football games. We’re way ahead of schedule compared to last year when we were still making coaching hires and learning the kids. You just can’t do it as fast as you’d like to.”

The team isn’t participating in a traditional spring football schedule, so the team isn’t permitted to put on pads or hit each other just yet. Still, they’re finding ways to get prepared for the season and be ready when those preseason scrimmages come around in August.

To read the full story, see next week’s issue. For more news and sports stories, see The Wylie News in print or online. Support your community newspaper for less than $40 a year.

By Kyle Grondin • [email protected]