Dave Campbell's Texas Football caught up with Boerne head coach Che Hendrix to discuss his Greyhounds ahead of the 2021 season.

What sort of challenges did the COVID-19 pandemic present to your program and what are some things you learned that you’ll move forward with?

Well it presented major challenges. We basically had to redo, reorganize, and rethink everything we did. From how we practice to how we meet to how we lift to how we have our entire program structured. A positive we've taken away was how beneficial Zoom was -- how we can meet with our individual groups, our team, offense/defense, and even smaller groups to watch film and install gameplan without having to be in-person. That's the main thing that I think will help us moving forward.

Your squad had a lot of success offensively in 2020. Who are some key contributors fans should keep an eye on this season?

We have a lot of great pieces coming back on offense. It all starts with our QB Rashawn Galloway -- he's a two-year starter, he's put up some huge numbers so we're expecting big things out of him. We have a lot of experienced pieces back on the offensive line, which I think is one of our biggest strengths. Jacob McLaughlin, center, he started as a freshman and is a two-year starter heading into his junior year. Riley Mackrell, Sam Waters, and Coy Embry are three guys back. So 4 of our 5 starters are returning on the offensive line. Riley Pechacek was our leading receiver last year with almost 1,000 yards receiving. Camden Johnson and Justin Moore are two outside receivers who will contribute as well. Koby Hunter, senior tight end is a two-year starter as well. So we've got a lot of experience returning. I'll add another one in there: JP Castro. He was our leading rusher last year -- had close to 600 or 700 yards.

Defensively, your team showed greatness in stretches. What’ll be the key to staying more consistent on that side of the ball – and who are some players that’ll make that happen?

Defensively, we lost our entire defensive line -- which was the strength of our team last season. We were young in the secondary, but we bring all those guys back. Will Pearson at safety will be a senior, Houston Hendrix was defensive newcomer of the year at safety, Braden Baize, Colby Brown, and Aaron Oviedo all are returning guys who started or played a significant amount. Our leading tackler Tanner Lundy comes back -- he had close to 150 tackles from the MIKE spot. So we have a lot of experience at linebacker and in the secondary -- which will be key to playing more consistent.

After a two-round-deep playoff run, what’ll be your teams focus as you look to capitalize on that experience and make it further in the postseason?

Well, I think each year is a new year. You've gotta start over. I know we have a lot of experience and had a good run with momentum -- but at the same time we have to do the things this coming season that we've done in the past. We have to build chemistry, play consistent football, we have to let people know their assignments, we have to do all that in the preseason. So all those things are things we have to do again if we want to have success. We've gotta learn how to practice right, we've gotta learn how to handle success, how to handles adversity, and if we do that I think we'll be back in the position we were last year and hopefully make an even deeper run.

Finally, what are the general cultural principles you’ve instilled (or are still doing so) in your players? And how have you seen them grow through those?

We do a lot. We really try to coach beyond the game. Our word for this season is "Brotherhood." Our players voted on that as they do every year as we try to come up with a theme for what we want to be described as. "Brotherhood" exemplifies a mixture of servant leadership and accountability. We want our players to learn how to talk to each other as young men, how to express feelings toward one another, and to cultivate lifelong friendships through our football team -- which starts through servant leadership and serving our community with each other. I've seen huge strides in that. I've watched our kids break down barriers and come together as one football team over the past few years. We believe that's what makes us different -- what sets us apart.