With an overall record of four wins and five losses, the Akins Varsity Football season has come to an end, making a close but unsuccessful run at securing a spot in the playoffs.

The Eagles had a chance to earn a playoff spot if they could have beat the Rattlers, but they came up short in a 49-28 loss against the San Marcos-based football team. The result was a season ending with two wins and four losses in district play.

Coach Saxe said that he is really happy with how the season went because the team accomplished several of the goals he had set when he took over the football program last spring.

“We had 34 seniors come out, which is the largest senior class ever. We updated the locker room and did a lot of big culture pieces,” he said. “We weren’t supposed to win a single game this year and we had an opportunity to play in the playoffs. I think I did a good job with all my coaches that helped.”

Saxe said he thinks the team challenged detractors of the Akins football program.

“I am proud that our students want sports and how our organization wanted to prove everyone wrong,” he said. “Also, making everyone in the locker room think that they are greater than they are is really amazing.”

Saxe said he is already thinking about preparing for the next season. “We have to fill the shoes of all those 34 seniors leaving, we need our athletes to get bigger, stronger, and faster,” he said. “Starting up after school activities that have never been done in our program history that’s going to be really important.”

“I think we have a lot of athletes going to D1, D2, D3. We are going to sit down with our seniors to get them ready for college. We are going to spend countless hours sending emails and calling to give our kids the opportunity and options to play football,” he said.

Michael Ybarra, a senior on the varsity team, said he is happy about this year’s season.

“This one definitely felt different, you know, just having a different team and a different coach, just a different mindset to just coming into the season. We kind of knew that we had a change so we knew that we’re going to have something different. And I mean, we won more games than we have all my past two years playing on varsity”, he said.

“This season, I’m just proud of changing like everything, like there were times last season whenever we gave up and you know, it was just like people’s helmets thrown down on the sideline and just messing up, but this season was a lot different.”

Nik Hall, a senior on varsity, said this season was good.

“Everybody played their hardest. We got closer as a team, and we won a lot more games than previous years,” he said.

“Our work ethic and just our hard drive went a long way too.”

Zach Cagle, a senior on the varsity team, said he is really proud of this season.

“This season felt like the energy was there, but since coach Saxe came in he made it feel more there and I am really proud of this team,” he said.

“I’m most proud that we stuck together towards the end no matter if we won or lost, it meant that we stuck together as a family and I’m really proud of that.”