CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — The Incarnate Word Academy Angels football program has been very excited to kickoff their first full 11-man football season. The past three years they've been playing in 6-man football. Making that transition can be pretty challenging, but with new head coach Craig Charlton who came out of retirement the Angels are in good hands.
"Well it's exciting," Charlton said. "If you think about this for the first time in school history we're going to 11-man football with a very young team, so I'm excited about the possibility and the growth that's going to happen over the next four years with this program and also with this team. The majority of this team is underclassmen."
It's impressive to see how far these Angels have flown, from learning the basic fundamentals, to trying out 6-man football and now grasping schemes for 11-man plays. Coach Charlton has been impressed with how much the offense has picked up so far.
"When you've got Sawyer who's our quarterback running the ball he's a really good athlete and we can throw the ball downfield some," Charlton said. "We've got a really good running back as well too. We're a little young up front with our offensive line, but those guys are really starting to gel too"
Angels junior quarterback Sawyer Brown began playing football his freshman year, and he's come a long way as well as his teammates who also for the majority of their life had never picked up the sport.
"It's amazing. I've seen all of my friends grow in each of their positions and they've all gotten better," Brown said. "I've gotten a lot more confident. At the beginning I was definitely really scared to touch the field and play, but now it's become really fun actually."
IWA will compete in TAPPS Division V, which is open to teams not in a specific district who are looking to join.
The Angels officially kick off their 11-man season with a short road trip to St. John Paul II on Friday, Aug. 21 at 7 p.m.
TAPPS Division V, Non-Aligned Teams
