For a decade, Richardson Berkner football never reached the playoffs. From 2011 through 2020 the Rams missed the postseason every year. Since Tyey Bryant became head coach in 2021, they have made it three times in four seasons, CBS News Texas reported.
Bryant gives much of the credit to how close his players are away from practice. Several of them told the station they think of teammates as brothers, some because they have known each other since early childhood, others because of the hours they put in together from winter workouts through the summer.
"When you're not at practice or the locker room, there's so many arguments, but to me I like it," Bryant said. "It lets me know that you care about each other."
Coaching his old team
Bryant played for Berkner in the early 2000s, when Jim Ledford ran the program during one of its strongest periods, and he now coaches the team he starred for.
"This is all I know as a head coach," he told CBS News Texas. He said he did not need a map to learn where his feeder elementary schools were when he took the job.