Bandits ready for Season Opener 03-14-13
By: Randy Ward
Updated: March 14, 2013
"It's kind of that punch them in the mouth mentality, we're gonna come after them, we're gonna come after them hard, we're gonna come after them for 60 minutes," Bandits Coach Chris Simpson said.
Simpson describes this group as a bunch of good character guys, and they all come from unique backgrounds and have different stories, two of them played at Angelo State and after being out of the game for awhile, they are just happy to don pads again.
"I was out working in the oil field and decided that I was so close to graduating, I had a little over 20 hours left, came back to school, got word that there was going to be an arena team here, contacted the coaches like 'hey I'm here trying to graduate you need a receiver?' they told me to come out and that's how it ended up happening, " Bandits receiver Garrett Tidwell explained.
"Mentally it was kind of hard for me, I'm not gonna lie I've been playing football since I was four years old so it was real hard, every day I thought about it and every day I wanted to go work out," said Bandits running back Tristan Carter.
In their only preseason against Abilene last Saturday, the Bandits lost but Coach Simpson found some positives that he believes will bode well for the future.
"We had a bunch of guys that didn't quit, they went out there and they continued to fight, they continued to battle, we clawed our way back in there and we didn't win it but it's not a big deal and we saw a lot of good things," said Chris Simpson.
The Bandits and New Mexico Stars play Saturday Night at 7pm in Foster Communications Coliseum.


