The Falcons have big shoes to fill after last season’s Lone Star Conference opening-round loss to Angelo State.
The team, over the offseason, saw their starting five either graduate or transfer out, and only have five returning players from their 16-13 squad a season ago.
Head coach Kyle Tolin is not too worried about the 10 new recruits and transfers joining the Falcons this coming season.
“We tried to attack several little things – we wanted to get bigger, which we did,” Tolin said in Monday’s press conference. “We got bigger and more athletic.”
To go into further detail, Tolin said that his Falcons did not have solid post play last season and the additions of six-foot, nine-inch junior forward Nathaniel Powell and seven-foot junior forward Lino Manhom should change on that front this upcoming season.
Tolin went on to say that nothing is set in stone as far as specific starting lineups and playing time for the upcoming season.
“I think this team has been more together so far, but starting spots and playing time and all that kind of stuff hasn’t been divvied out yet,” Tolin said.
In terms of expectations for this upcoming season, Tolin was not concerned about wins or losses or even reaching the conference championship game.
Instead, Tolin wants his Falcons to focus on a day-by-day basis on improving their craft.
“We’re trying to have a certain standard every day,” Tolin said. “So right now, it’s as simple as trying to get the guys to understand and do their job and to do their job every day. Be disciplined all of the time.”
The Falcons begin their 2022-2023 season on Friday, November 11, as they take on non-conference foe Adams State, who finished with a 12-16 overall record and eleventh in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference.
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The Falcons were involved in their fifth consecutive game decided by just a one possession margin and the team’s sixth in the last seven games this season.
Head Coach Justin Carrigan was asked about this consistent pattern of close games during the press conference on Monday.
“We got to find a way to win and we are trying to do that,” Carrigan said. “We might be trying to do a little too much.
“We have to go back to the drawing board. It’s a tough test as coaches, but we got to have it figured out,” Carrigan continued. “We play 58 minutes of good football. We got to play 60 minutes and finish the job.”
Carrigan and the Falcons are looking forward to the Saturday afternoon game against the Eastern New Mexico Greyhounds (2-6, 1-5) in Portales, N.M.
“(The Greyhounds) are pretty balanced offensively,” Carrigan said. “Defensively, they run a 4-2-5 and a good amount of blitz but more zone coverage and their players play hard.
“They are a young team with a second-year coach, so I hope we will find our way (on Saturday).”
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Head Coach Victor Domingues feels like his team can make that final push for a top-four seed in the Lone Star Conference as the Falcons just have three games left in the regular season and sit less than a game behind Dallas Baptist (5-6-4 overall and 4-3 in conference play).
“This is a position that we wanted to be in and we want to have it in our hands,” Domingues said in Monday’s press conference. “We are ready for this challenge.
“Everyone is super excited to keep this (fifth seed) and not only keep it but to jump into the top four, which would be the first time schools will have to go through us.”
The top four seeds by season’s end receive home-field advantage in the upcoming Lone Star Conference tournament, which would be a first in program history, according to Domingues.
“My very first press conference here, I talked about the main thing that we want to do is make history in this program,” Domingues continued. “Making history would just be winning on Wednesday and winning on Saturday, and we’re in the top four, which this program has never done.”
The Falcons (4-4-5, 2-2-3) host the Midwestern State Mustangs (9-4-2, 3-4) on Wednesday in the home season finale.
The Mustangs sit a game behind the Falcons in the conference standings.
The Falcons then wrap-up their season against Lubbock Christian (7-6-3, 4-2-1), who sit at the third seed, on Saturday night.
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