At a recent meeting, the Lexington R-V Board of Education, again selected Chris Brooks to be the Head Football Coach for the Lexington Minutemen. Chris replaces Joel Mathews, who resigned as Head Coach after only one year, to accept a teaching and coaching position in the Blue Springs School District.

Chris was previously the Head Football Coach here for 4 years, during the 2021-2024 Football seasons, and was an assistant coach for the Minutemen for 7 years before that.

Following are some questions that I posed to Coach Brooks recently, along with his responses to those questions:

Talk about your Career as a High School and College Athlete.

I had the opportunity to play for some outstanding coaches here at Lexington, who motivated me to be the best athlete that I could be. I worked hard and believed in the process and what they were teaching me, and it helped me to be successful.

What encouraged you to become the Head Football Coach again?

I have had opportunities to go and coach at other schools, but I truly love Lexington, and I want to be a part of helping as many young people in this Community, as I can. I have fallen on my face many times, and I have had to pick myself up and keep going, and I want to help teach our young people in Lexington to do the same, when times might be tough.

What activities do you have for your Football players this Summer?

During this month of June, we are working mainly on weights, speed and agility. I have some coaches that have had a wealth of experience with weightlifting and conditioning, and it should pay big dividends for us. As the Summer progresses, we will also work more on Football related skills and techniques, and we will attend camps and other competitions.

What will it take to get the Minutemen Football program back to the level where it was when Lexington was winning State Championships?

Dedication and the willingness of athletes and coaches to go the extra mile and make the necessary sacrifices to be their best. It is also good for athletes to begin playing at as early of an age as possible, which is big for skill development. A lot depends on the athletes working hard and putting in the time during the Summer, and not only improving their skills, and getting stronger and faster, but also bonding and developing unity with their teammates. It is also important for parents to support and encourage their athletes to work hard and make the necessary sacrifices that it takes to be a winner.

What are some things that you learned during your first stint as a Head Coach that should help you as you move forward?

I need to do a better job of communicating with my players, their parents, and my assistant coaches, so that I always have a good professional and personal relationship, with each of them. I also need to be sure and trust the people around me and empower them to be successful.

Sometimes in the past, I let my emotions get the best of me, and I was not as patient as I should have been in teaching and coaching my players, and I will try to improve in that area. Again though, I plan to always keep the lines of communication open, and make sure that my players, coaches, parents, administrators and myself are all on the same page at all times.

What are some things that you plan to do to encourage more kids to come out for Football?

We need to convince more Middle and High School kids to give Football a try. If we can get them out here, they often realize that playing Football can be fun, and when they start working out, they can see that they are getting better athletically, and it normally improves their self confidence. Also, being part of a team can really help pull young people together, and they develop many friendships, and realize that they often have to make personal sacrifices in order for the whole group to be successful, which is a good life lesson.

What does your Schedule look like for this coming season?

We will open up with four non conference games, as we will have a home game on August 28 with Lone Jack, and then play Plattsburg the following week, also at home. In week 3, we will travel to Versailles, and then play our final non conference game the following week at Crest Ridge. We will begin MRVC East Conference play on September 25 at home against Holden, and then have back to back road games at Knob Noster and Carrollton. We will wrap up our regular season schedule with home games against Higginsville on October 16, and then Richmond on October 23. The first District game will be on October 30, with the opponent to be determined later on.

What can the parents of your players do to support your program and to also support their sons as Football players?

We would ask parents to support us, and trust that our coaching staff has the best interest of their son at heart, because that will be our first priority. As I stated earlier, we always want to keep the lines of communication open, so if any parents have a question, or would like to talk with us, we would encourage you to contact us, as we want to do our best to assure that we are all on the same page, and that there are not any misunderstandings.

What type of offensive scheme will you plan to utilize?

We plan to run some pro set, and we will also be under center and run some shotgun formations. We will try to run the ball and be a run first team, and I believe that we have some skilled and talented athletes so we will also try to get them the ball in the open field and let them work.

What are your plans on the defensive side of the ball?

We will plan to utilize a 4-4 defensive scheme. This is the defense that Coach Kyle Cogan employed here several years ago, when I was an assistant coach, and we had a lot of success with it.

My assistant coaches also understand the 4-4 also, and we all believe in it. We will try to always play aggressively on defense, and hopefully do a good job of swarming to the ball.