AMARILLO, Texas (KAMR/KCIT) — The West Plains Wolves football team has made a name for themselves this season with an 8-1 overall record and a 3-0 district record. The Wolves are led by sophomore quarterback Reid Macon who helped West Plains to a 72-6 win over Perryton.

“I think all our offensive coaching staff and our defense coach, they did a great job at setting up a game plan for us to execute,” said sophomore quarterback Reid Macon. “I feel like offensively, we executed that almost to perfection.”

Macon continued, “Coach Cummings always says get 1% better every day. So, I feel like I’m trying to get our team in the best spot they can. I’m trying to lead them in the right direction to hopefully get them in the right mindset for each game.”

Macon was 12 of 19 with 275 passing yards and five touchdown passes against Perryton.

“Reids an extremely hard worker,” said West Plains offensive coordinator Jeff Lyles. “He does all of his homework, before the games are even played through film, study, through study of game plan, all the different mental aspects of the game that happened before you ever even stepped foot on the field. So when he’s out on the field, nothing’s really unfamiliar to him, because he’s done his homework.”

Through nine games this season Macon has 2,351 passing yards, 106 rushing yards, and 2,480 all-purpose yards.

Lyles continued, “he also spends a lot of time at his craft. So, his mechanics as a quarterback, his eye discipline, his leadership, his huddle, command, all those sorts of things are there. So, it sets him up on a good foundation for success, which he’s done a pretty good job of this year.”

In the win over Perryton, Macon had an outstanding connection with all of his receivers including senior wide receiver King Tallant. Tallant shared that over the past two seasons, their connection has only grown stronger.

“Reid’s a great teammate on and off the field,” said Tallant. “All week, he really helps us get ready to execute on Friday night. We’ve gotten closer over the two years with team dinners and just you know, hanging out outside of practice in school. I feel like we built that chemistry to just be able to execute on Friday nights.’

Macon shared that as a quarterback he focuses on knowing his team’s strengths and weaknesses to help them accomplish their goals.

“It’s just practice by practice, you know, and knowing those guys, knowing what their keys are and what their attributes and their abilities are and how I can make them a better receiver,” said Macon. “How I can do the things that they need as a quarterback from a quarterback standpoint to help them be the ultimate better player to help them get to the next level.”

From last season to now Macon has improved on and off the field and become a more valuable player.

“He’s put in the time to fine-tune his craft and get better at his position at the quarterback position,” said West Plains Head football coach Adam Cummings. “You know, he’s also matured a lot, coming from his freshman year to sophomore year. In between those two things, his leadership is improved, his play on the field is improved and just as overall, as a player, he’s just become making himself more valuable individual.”

Cummings also credits the success of the team to their dedication and ability to buy into what they are doing as a program.

“It really hasn’t been that hard to get them to buy into that they love coming to work every day and putting in the time and the effort,” said Cummings. “They love each other’s company and camaraderie on the team. But you know, we talk about it all the time, we talk about, you know, our goals getting at least 1% better every day.”

This season the teams’ motto is full benefit.

Cummings continued, “when we talk about full benefit it’s maximizing every opportunity that’s in front of you. That ties into the 1% better, and I think our kids are really bought into that.”

The Wolves have earned a spot in the playoffs and a share of the district title in just their second season.

“I think it’s a testament to good players, make good coaches, and that’s, that’s the bottom line. You know, it’s kind of funny, but at the same at the same time, it’s true, you know, if you don’t have good players, it’s hard to have the success that we’ve had. And so it starts with them, you know, their dedication, their ability to come out each week and stay focused and do get 1% better. And then, you know, I’m blessed to be surrounded by great coaching staff. And so those guys do a tremendous job week in and week out game planning, preparing our kids to go play a game every Friday night.

With the regular season winding down Macon is looking forward to all the practices to come during the playoffs and continuing to improve.

“I’m looking forward to the practices that we have and the bond that we create as we go because that playoff field is something special,” said Macon. “So, I think that as we go on, it’ll be it’ll get more intense and get more fun as we go to playoffs.

Macon and the Wolves used last year’s losses to help them overcome challenges this season.

“I think last year from the start, it was obviously rough,” said Macon. “But as we as we kept getting better every game, we noticed that like, hey, we got a team. We’re just going to build up and builds together a bond and I feel like that transferred over from last year.

Macon continued, “Now we just built that bond stronger, we built that brotherhood bigger. We just ultimately made our team much better mentally. Week by week, it just keeps getting better.”

With the playoffs around the corner, the Wolves are going to continue doing the things that have gotten them to where they are.

“We’ve talked about this with all of our kids, you know, don’t change what we’ve done just because we’re approaching the playoffs, and it’s a new phase of the season,” said Cummings. “We want them to continue to do the things and work the way that got us to this point.”