Johnny Niño poised to bring winning attitude to Dimmitt

Johnny Niño is working hard to bring a winning attitude to Dimmitt.

The second-year head coach laid the foundation for his team last fall. He did so while learning on the fly what it took and what it meant to be a head football coach of a high school program in the state of Texas.

"It's a lot of responsibility," Niño said. "You're the one making all the decisions. The one thing I did learn, and I kind of knew going in but it reinforced it last year, was that you have to rely on your assistants. You can't do everything on your own. My coaching staff and I have a really good working relationship. They're always willing to do what's necessary in order for us to be successful."

In his first season, Niño and his coaching staff guided Dimmitt to a 3-7 overall record and picked up one district win just one year removed from a winless 2020 campaign. While the Bobcats improved their points-per-game average up from 3.8 points in 2020 to 11.5 points last season, Dimmitt struggled against a tough slate of District 3-3A Division II competition and finished sixth in the seven-team standings.

In the three years before Niño's arrival in Dimmitt, the Bobcats won a grand total of three games. That is the same amount of wins it took Niño and his team 11 weeks to accomplish last fall. This is not to say that all of the Bobcats issues are solved, but instead to show that they are moving in the right direction after several years of stagnant and disappointing play.

"We have to bring our 'A' game every week," Niño said. "We can't worry about what district we're in or anything like that, we just have to make ourselves better. If we improve ourselves, then we improve our chances of being competitive each and every week. I want the consistency to be better. I want the mistakes to be limited and I want to be able to have a chance to win games at the end."

There are several returning starters and a handful of position battles that Niño is excited about seeing when the Bobcats take the field for practice in a couple of weeks.

At the quarterback position, Niño is anticipating a strong competition between seniors Daunte Perez and Sabian Martinez. The Bobcats have one returning starting offensive lineman in junior center Jorje Pena and will have an open competition for the other four starting spots when the pads come on next month. They will be young and inexperienced on that area of the team, so the Bobcats will rely heavily on their skill players in addition to their coaching to help progress those young linemen.

Dimmitt has strong leadership at their skill positions to captain their one-back spread as they return senior running back Gabriel Reyes and a duo of senior wide receivers in Damian Arriaga and William Van Zee.

"We've done a lot of 7-on-7 this offseason to try to get our skill players all on the same page," Niño said.

The Bobcats will run a base 3-3 defense that will be looking to improve after a tough stretch to end the 2021 season. Dimmitt was shutout three times in their six district games and will need to be more physical against top-of-the-charts teams such as No. 2 Canadian and No. 9 Childress.

Dimmitt's receiver duo of Arriaga and Van Zee will team up with Martinez to serve as the second level of the Bobcat defense and should be a speedy bunch flying from sideline-to-sideline regularly. Van Zee was the Bobcats' leading tackler in 2021 and will look to up his game even more this season. Niño has noted that there will be several players who make the jump up from junior varsity that will compete for roles both at linebacker and in the secondary.

Reyes will return as the star of the defensive backfield after leading the team in interceptions last fall.

"I think they'll be more comfortable with what I expect and what we do," Niño said of his defense. "Last year, I was getting to know them as they were getting to know me. I think the second year, they'll react a lot quicker without having to think about things when we make a defensive call. I think them having to stop and think about it some last year probably slowed them down. This year, they can just react and be comfortable in the system that we have."

The goal for Dimmitt this season is the same for any program throughout the Texas Panhandle: making the playoffs.

The last time that the Bobcats qualified for the postseason was 2016. They have not endured a rich tradition of winning in the past, but Niño is hoping to make that tradition of losing a distant memory. While the turnaround may not be immediate, and the road ahead facing a challenging district appears daunting, there is both hope and potential around the gridiron in Dimmitt.

"The main goal is to be better than we were last year," Niño said. "If we can take a step forward and look back at the end of the year and say we were better this year than we were last year. Next year will be the same goal: to be better than we were the year before."

DIMMITT BOBCATS

Head coach: Johnny Niño

2021 record: 3-7 overall, 1-5 in district

Base offense: One-back Spread

Base defense: 3-3

Last playoff appearance: 2016

Returning Lettermen: 9

Top returners: DB/QB Daunte Perez; DB/RB Gabriel Reyes; OLB/WR Sabian Martinez; LB/WR Damian Arriaga; DL/OL Jorje Pena; LB/WR William Van Zee

SCHEDULE

Aug. 26: at Memphis, 7 p.m.

Sep. 2: vs. Olton, 7 p.m.

Sep. 9: vs. Sunray, 7 p.m.

Sep. 16: at Brownfield, 7 p.m.

Sep. 23: at Highland Park, 7 p.m.

Sep. 30: OPEN

Oct. 7: vs. Spearman, 7 p.m.*

Oct. 14: at Friona, 7 p.m.*

Oct. 21: vs. Tulia, 7 p.m.*

Oct. 28: vs. Childress, 7 p.m.*

Nov. 4: at Canadian, 7 p.m.*

* - Denotes district game

This article originally appeared on Amarillo Globe-News: New Dimmitt coach Johnny Niño poised to bring winning attitude