DeSoto football learned hard lesson from 0-2 start. Now the Eagles are having fun again

The DeSoto Eagles are an example of a team that prepares the way they play.

Intense, physical, fast, but it all culminates into one thing.

"Having fun..you got to have fun," DeSoto head coach Claude Mathis said. "That's what we weren't having at first, and they're having a lot of fun right now with consistency. How we practice is how we take it to the field, and they get it."

The Eagles are the defending 6A Division II state champions, but they've faced plenty of adversity this season.

Much like their championship run a year ago, DeSoto started 0-2, falling to St. Thomas Aquinas and Allen.

"We got a lot of players with a lot of offers and stars. and felt like based on who we had on our team, plus the name Desoto, that we were just going to come in and beat everybody," Desoto linebacker Quentin Billings said. "I felt like those two losses really taught us to play the game. It humbled us."

"I kind of just had to tell them that we've been here before," DeSoto quarterback/running back SaRod Baker said.  "We were here last year, and in December, we were holding up the state championship."

Since that 0-2 start, DeSoto has been nothing short of dominant. The Eagles have been clicking on both sides of the ball, and they look poised for another state title run. But Mathis says success isn't automatic. It starts and ends with how they prepare.

"We always say to each other....this is hard," Mathis said. "Friday nights, Thursday nights and Saturday is easy. If we can't do it out here, we can't do it on Saturdays, we can't do it on a Friday or Thursday. They understand now that this is their own legacy. They got to build their own legacy."

"This year's team is a new team just like last year's team is a new team," Desoto safety Rickshown Hanks Jr. said. "Majority of the guys this year are not the same guys. We have to all just gel together and just buy in...not listening to what the outsiders say."

"We're coming along, getting better and better every week," Baker said. "That's all you can ask for. Nobody is perfect, so all you can ask for is to get 1 percent better every day."