Decade-Long Losing Streak Ends For North Texas High School Football Team
FORT WORTH (CBSDFW.COM) - Ten years without winning a single game is over. The losing streak was broken by a Fort Worth high school football team Thursday night.
As the game clock ticked down, the entire crowd counted down until the buzzer sound. Then, pandemonium erupted on the football field as the Diamond Hill-Jarvis Eagles broke the curse, winning their first game in a decade and ending a 77-game losing streak.
"I was mind blown because I have never had that support from my community...ever until last night," said Eagles running back Eddrick Hampton.
Hampton, a senior, scored several of the touchdowns as they defeated Dallas Conrad 40-12 in their first game of the season.
The team was surprised the next morning with a small parade was held for the football players in the halls of the school as the entire campus rejoiced.
"It does feel like there's new life that's been breathed into the program," said head football coach Oscar Castillo. "I had kids, 'Coach, I want to play! I want to play!' Before I begged them to play."
Castillo took the helm in 2017.
The Eagles have been in a rebuilding phase since then. Parents tell us the coaching staff has implemented new training standards and encouraged positivity and accountability. Even though parents credit Castillo's leadership for the team's improvement, Castillo says he almost didn't take the job.
"It took me a month before I even applied for the job because I had just got remarried and I was like, 'I don't know even I need to take that on, too,'" said Castillo. "When I met the kids, I was like, 'I gotta come and try to help them.'"
The team is now training in a brand new training facility. Community support for the Eagles has also ramped up.
The coach and players are well aware this is just one game, and their goal is to have a winning season.
"The streak doesn't mean anything to me," said Hampton. "As long as we just keep working hard I believe we can achieve more wins."
The team has nine more games to play this season.