Coaches Corner: Canyon Lake’s Matt Monzingo

Time with Head Coach Matt Monzingo morphed to looking into the future of the football program.

The Hawks have just finished an 8-2 record while beating some very good teams in the process.

The Sealy game comes to mind as Canyon Lake had one of its most important statement games in the short history for this program.

“We (CL) will reevaluate everything we are doing,” Coach Monzingo started. “From pre-game to halftime we will go over all of it.”

Talking about the players coming back, Coach Monzingo said, “We will have to move some guys around while we evaluate our depth.”

Head Coach Matt Monzingo

“We will have to develop a defensive end and defensive line,” Monzingo continued. “We want to find some meanness in them and find some guys with an attitude.”

Canyon Lake is losing several players on both sides of the line that had put in considerable minutes.

“We lose everyone but Logan Felch,” Coach reiterated. “The Junior Varsity’s offensive line was pretty good and you (fans) will be surprised on how the Junior Varsity has come along, but we will be younger.”

The Hawks will need to find a couple of ingredients in order to get to the next level.

The 2009 season, Canyon Lake brought playoffs to the community, that team had a good offense, but the defense was part of the team that has yet to be duplicated.

The 2010 season, CL started slow and then continued to improve to a (one) point from going to the third round of playoffs.

The 2011 season, had a great start for the season with a bump in the middle that caused a strange set of circumstances having Canyon Lake watching and not participating in the playoffs.

Put the best of those seasons together and you would have a pretty salty group of players taking the field each Friday night.

“Leadership,” Coach Monzingo zinged. “This group likes each other and will have a different feel…we will need to break the season into three games each and have a winning record.”

“This pre/season we will be trying to find combinations right now…No one can be afraid to put in time,” Coach Monzingo said with conviction. “

The Freshman team will be another part of a puzzle in helping future Hawk teams.

“I’m excited about the Freshman group,” Coach Monzingo said. “Their record could of been a lot better…they are very coachable and play aggressive.”

“They come to work everyday,” Monzingo stated.

Coach Monzingo lapsed back into what could of been… “Once you don’t make playoffs you can’t feel sorry for yourself….we will have to get our ‘mojo’ back.”

“I’ve been beaten but have not been beat,” Coach Monzingo quipped. “We will have to have that kind of mentality…we have kids that are involved.”

Monzingo also has a task of putting next year’s schedule together.

The UIL is in the process of forming new alignments for sizes of schools which will place them as a 2A or 3A schools. The final numbers will be finalized in February.

“Nothing is set in stone, but we have lined up three schools for next season,” Coach Monzingo said. “Burnet, Blanco, and La Vernia will be on our schedule.”

Even those games might be changed since teams like Burnet might be moved to the same district as Canyon Lake. Coach Monzingo does not have any information on the size of district which will leave them in a state of flux up into the first part of March.

“Numbers (size of school) doesn’t mean anything,” Coach Monzingo closed. “They (UIL) start from the top and work their way down.”

The ReSporter would like to thank Coach Monzingo for the time he spent with us in putting ‘Coaches Corner’ thoughts together.

A little over eight months from now a new edition will be ready for action…can’t wait.