Grizzlies welcome Midway Chargers for homecoming tonight

The Gans Grizzlies will look to make it a happy homecoming when they look not only for their first win of the 2024 season, but the first win for new coach Gary Hixon when they face the Midway Chargers at 7 tonight at Grizzly Field.

The Grizzlies (0-3) played their best game of the season last Friday night despite losing 28-6 to the Watts Engineers in their home opener.

“Our offensive line is starting to understand what we really want them to do,” Hixon said. “Even when we went to double tight (ends), our tight ends did a pretty decent job. There were times they still busted, but we thought it was time to run Anthony (Vasquez, who rushed for 121 yards on 28 carries and scored Gans’ lone touchdown vs. Watts) and see how well he was going to handle it. We worked his tail off, and he handled it pretty well.”

In fact, Hixon said his team’s demeanor after last week’s home-opening loss was not that of a team of players being down in the dumps.

“One thing I was so proud of my kids (last) Friday night was their body language,” he said. “You would have thought that we almost won. Their body language was still so positive. That’s something that I preach about, and our coaching staff preaches about, is your body language. Your body language says a whole bunch. If you’re defeated, your body language is going to show it. Our body language never was as bad as it had been against Keota or Oaks. I was proud of them for that. The actually acted like we won a ball game, as far as their body language goes.”

Of course, there’s always a concern for a coach when his/her team has homecoming festivities to deal with as well.

“You just have to preach it,” Hixon said. “If you want to be successful, you have to focus on the game. You can’t worry about the distractions about who’s going to get to walk who. That festivity is over at pregame. After that, your focus had better be on the Midway Chargers. If not, they’ll come in and beat you. That’s something we preach. We’ve been practicing like that, too. Hopefully, we’ll maintain our focus.”

The Chargers come in at 0-2 after losing 62-6 to Copan — a District BII-4 foe for the Grizzlies this season — and losing last week 45-0 to Strother. Hixon and the Grizzlies got a sneak peak at the Chargers in the preseason.

“Their physicality concerns us,” he said. “We scrimmaged them in the first scrimmage. They are big and physical.”

The Grizzlies will need to play a sound game in all aspects, as well as handle the physicality of the Chargers if they want to get their first win of 2024 — and get their new coach his first win with the Grizzlies.

“We have to make sure that we can hold up to that pounding that they like to do,” Hixon said. “We can’t turn the ball over. We had three turnovers against Watts. We have to make sure we have ball security. We have to play mistake free.”