On paper, the Alice Coyotes qualify as one of the state’s most unexpected unbeaten teams at the midpoint of the season.

Throughout an uncharacteristic 2018 that saw Alice miss the playoffs and suffer its first losing season since 2011, coach Kyle Atwood noticed things just weren’t clicking. Entering 2019, DCTF projected Alice to finish seventh in District 15-5A DII.

“I’d come from San Angelo Central after being on the coaching staff here, and our mindset was that we wanted to play two-platoon football,” Atwood said, having players play only offense or defense.

While the concept should have allowed the Coyotes to keep fresh players on the field at all times, it created a divisiveness that no one expected.

“It was almost as if we were two different teams,” Atwood said. “When some bad things took place or either the offense or the defense didn’t do their responsibility, we didn’t react well. Offense and defense traveled in different buses. It just wasn’t good for us.”

After the season, Atwood and his staff evaluated what went wrong. The two-platoon system wasn’t the only thing, but it was the most noticeable, he said. When the team reconvened prior to the spring season, Atwood scrapped that system.

“During our athletic period before spring practice, we had players learn an offensive position and a defensive position,” Atwood explained. “During spring practice, players learned offensive and defensive positions.”

The Coyotes – many of whom returned from last season’s 4-6 struggle, embraced the new philosophy.

“We’ve actually created a lot more depth at different positions, and we’ve also created a sense of competition at some positions,” Atwood said. “And then we’ve really created a lot more community with the team by doing it the way we’re doing it. That’s been huge.”

If the Coyotes played disjointed football last season, the early results show the new approach has more than gotten everyone on the same page.

“We didn’t like the environment that had been created last year, so we attacked it and I think we’ve got a night and day difference,” Atwood said. “We didn’t really change our offense and defense. It’s just the philosophy. You can really see that when we have had success on Friday nights. You can really see them love on each other, and that’s a really big thing for us.

“We were pretty good last year, but we just couldn’t get that out of the players.”

The Coyotes have had plenty of chances to show their love for each other. After convincing wins to open the season over Laredo Alexander and King, the Coyotes won a tight tussle at Rockport Fulton before throttling Tuloso-Midway 50-13 to open district play thanks to six turnovers and a pair of special teams touchdowns, one each by twins Weston and Waylon Moore.

“Weston returned the second-half kickoff 99 yards for a touchdown, so the next time they tried kicking to the other side,” Atwood said. “They kicked it to the left and the other twin returned it 95 yards.”

The Moores are just part of a group of talented, invested players who have keyed the Coyotes’ turnaround. Quarterback Isaiah Aguilar has passed for more than 1,100 yards and rushed for 300 more. Linebacker Aaron Arellano has picked up his play, as has Isaac Garcia, one of the team’s most positive players. RJ Salas is one of the Coyotes seeing considerable playing time at both receiver and cornerback. Defensive tackle Sergio Sandoval and safety Jessie Sanchez are making their marks as well.

“Really, we’ve got 43 players who have the opportunity and the ability to be a leader for us,” Atwood said. “Everyone has the ability to lead and do what’s right.”

Doing what’s right means following team rules, even if players don’t agree with the rules. But that disagreement has resulted in – 4-0 record aside – the most visible change in the 2019 team. Two years ago, Alice High School officials changed a longstanding rule that prohibited students from growing facial hair.

“Even though the school changed the rule, we went ahead and incorporated into our athletic policy that athletes can not have facial hair,” Atwood said. “So we had these 15-18 year old boys who had gone through puberty and now had the ability to grow facial hair, and some of them were really hurt when we told them they couldn’t do it when everyone else in the school could.”

So Atwood and his coaches met the players halfway in hopes of lessening their frustration.

“We made a pact with them that if they would follow the rules and be clean shaven every day, then we will grow facial hair for you,” he said. “So we are growing mustaches in a way that frankly doesn’t look very appealing. We have 20 coaches on staff and we all have a mustache and maybe there’s only a couple where it looks normal. Mostly, they look pretty horrific.”

But a pact is a pact, and the players love it.

“They got a big kick out of it and then they asked us if we’d keep it until we lose,” Atwood said. “So we agreed to do that. We wanted them to see that their disappointment did not go unnoticed.”

The coach hopes he and his staff can put off shaving for at least another week, though they know that 10th-ranked Port Lavaca Calhoun will provide their toughest test yet.

“They are a solid team,” Atwood said. “We know our district is extremely tough and we go to practice every day with the mindset that we’re going to get better as players and teammates during the week so we can play our best football on Friday night. We try to take it one week at a time, but yeah, this is a huge one ahead of us this week.”

Alice knows what’s at stake. With a win, the Coyotes surpass last season’s win total and get a leg up in the race for a coveted playoff spot. But that’s certainly not the only thing at stake.

“Now it’s turned into this protect the ‘stache type of thing,” Atwood said. “We started this on Aug. 11.”

Will the mustaches see Oct. 11?