Tory Peet gets Groom to believe, succeed following rough start
Groom head coach Tory Peet summed it up about as well as he could've when asked to describe the state of the program midway through his first season in charge.
The Tigers were sitting at 1-5, following a brutal non-district schedule that saw them lose multiple one-possession games. Groom was gearing up to face off Silverton, the top team in District 1-1A Division II.
"These guys could’ve shut it down," Peet said. "They could’ve said, ‘Coach, we’re not going to do this and we’ll hope to get second place.’ Then we went out and they believed in themselves. We got on a roll and it was fun.”
Groom and Silverton exchanged the lead nine times before Stephen Kuehler's touchdown with two seconds left on the clock provided the Tigers the win. Groom didn't lose in the regular season again as it overcame a shaky start to the year to win the district title.
The Tigers added a playoff win to boot before finishing the year 6-6.
Peet himself said that he didn't think he'd be in the running for Amarillo Globe-News Six-Man Coach of the Year given the final record. But, for a guy in his first year fully in charge, helping a team overcome a 1-5 start and leading them to a massive upset, undefeated district title and playoff victory more than earns him the title.
It didn't look like Groom would be in the running for much of anything in the early going, though. Peet credits his assistants and players for rallying, but even when times were tough, he kept reminding the team that the Tigers were better than their record indicated.
"Our schedule wasn't an easy schedule," Peet said. "We're a Division II school and we played White Deer, which is a Division I school. McLean is Division I, Miami is a Division I, Amherst was a playoff Division II school, we played Nazareth. Our first six games were five Division I schools and a playoff Division II school and we weren't blown out of any games."
That's even more impressive when you consider the roster limitations that Groom had to deal with.
"I only had two seniors on my team this year," Peet said. "We had 14 (players) that suited up on Friday nights. Out of those 14 kids I had two kids with more than one year of varsity playing experience. My two juniors didn't play as freshmen so we came in knowing we were inexperienced, but my two seniors did a great job of reminding those guys, 'It's okay, we're getting better.'"
Peet said he and his staff also evaluated one another in order to find the best way to get better. Going into Silverton the team continued to remind themselves that they were getting better. That reinforcement developed into belief and victories.
"Our guys didn't think we could get beat when it came to district," Peet said. "That was their mentality. We took care of business there and it just fell into place after that."
Losing Kuehler and Blayne Shuck will hurt, but the once inexperienced Tigers are now loaded with maturity. Groom should be in good shape on the roster in the fall of 2023.
And the staff, will consist of the AGN Six-Man Coach of the Year.
This article originally appeared on Amarillo Globe-News: Tory Peet gets Groom to believe, succeed following rough start
