After notching five wins, the most in Head Coach Greg Pel’s tenure, the football team will head into the off season with ever-growing expectations for continued improvement.

Missing the playoffs by only one game, varsity finished the season 5-5, and 3-4 in district play.

“After the win against Garland I knew it was a turning point for us,” senior receiver Stone Carter said. “I knew we had a lot of potential, and it showed that this year, and the future was going to be different.”

While players and coaches said the team is set up to take another step forward next year, Carter didn’t hide the sting of disappointment after barely missing the post-season.

“I can’t really describe the feeling of being so close to making it – it just feels like you’re on your toes being so close to getting something you want but coming up short, and it made me think ‘what if I did something different that could’ve changed the future,’ which is tough to think about.”

After going 1-19 in his first two seasons, Pels made marked improvement with five wins in his third season. He said the team finally seemed to take things that they needed to work on to heart, and the players showed huge improvements physically and mentally.

“I’m very proud of our guys – what a tremendous improvement that has been made by them not only from a commitment level, but just a performance level on the field, and really having a chance for that five to be seven wins if things would have gone a little bit differently,” Pels said.

The freshman team was second in district play, the highest they have finished in the Pels era, while JV finished 4th, also an improvement over last year.

“It just shows from top to bottom the program is on the right track, and it’s starting to be validated with wins and losses,” Pels said.

Even with concrete improvements in the win column, he said the work is more far-reaching than just what happens on the field.

“Winning isn’t our ultimate goal, but we want to make kids with good character that are going to be good citizens when they leave Richardson, so we’re really proud of where we are at, but we’re not satisfied and want to keep improving on that.”