Indians start season anew

    The Ganado Indians have a new basketball coach this year, Paul Pliler, and he comes from Joaquin in East Texas. He's also coached 17 years in different areas, like Garrison, Lovelady, Valley View and Sabine. Pliler has been able to take some of his basketball teams to the Regional Quarterfinals three times and his overall record is 249-145.
    The Indians began working with him in the beginning of November, and Pliler said they look good so far, and just getting to know him and learn the new system. Their first game was against St. Joseph on Nov. 20.
    "I have two seniors plus we lost one to a knee injury during football. There are four juniors, but again lost two more to football injuries," he said. "We're not ready enough for a game plan, we have to see district teams in action and get a feel for what we can do early on in games."
    Matt Bridges said the team is doing good, despite the fact that they are only returning three lettermen, himself, Caleb Thedford and Jorge Campuzano. “I feel llike we are already starting to play well with each other. We have had two good weeks of practice and we played good last Friday for it being our first game.”
    Pliler said the team has mainly been working on fundamentals like dribbling, shooting and defense. He said his philosophy of coaching is to have fun and joked the best way of doing is to win.
    "We try to keep practice up-tempo and have little competitions to keep it going and let the kids enjoy it," he said. "I think in any sport learning how to work hard and be committed to something bigger than yourself is a life-long lesson."
    The Schulenburg Shorthorns basketball team is sitting number three in the state and Flatonia is currently number 11. Pliler said like football, Ganado's district is one of the tougher districts in the state.
    Thedford said Pliler is a good coach. “I can tell he really knows the game and he will put us in the position to win every game we go out and play.”