Grape Creek Culture Changing Thanks, in Part, to Husband-Wife Coaching Duo

GRAPE CREEK, TX— The Grape Creek athletic program, specifically their football team, has seen quite the turnover in coaches since 1998.

That’s why the community of Grape Creek is excited that newly promoted Athletic Director and head football coach Tanner Thiel and his wife, head softball coach, Cara Thiel plan on staying for the long run.

“We’re both like-minded,” Tanner said, adding that he and his wife have the same goals. “Coaches are cut from the same cloth. Usually, when you have husband and wife pairs, if one [spouse] is strong, the other one is strong too. You don’t usually have couples that gravitate towards each other that aren’t similar in some way when it comes to stuff like [ethics and goals].”

“I think we know what it takes,” Cara added. “We both have been coaches now, so we know the hours that go into [coaching]; how much time is spent away from our family. We don’t hold that against each other. We do it because we love it. It’s our passion. When both partners aren’t coaching, it’s easy to be like “when are you coming home?” We know what it takes and we don’t let that interfere with our personal life.”

The Thiels met and started dating while the two were undergrads at the University of Texas-Arlington where Cara played softball for the Mavericks. Since then, Tanner has been at every softball game supporting Cara whether the game near or far.

“[Tanner] came to every game, even away games,” Cara said. “I think just being [emotionally] supportive in general is the main thing. When you come off losses where you know you should’ve won and you just need to vent to somebody, at least he’s there and he understands what’s going on. He’s there to listen mainly. He doesn’t tell me how to coach softball because I would not tell him how to coach football. But we can at least vent to each other and we understand the kids. We know what the kids are going through.”

Tanner went on to become a Graduate assistant for the UTSA Roadrunners after UTA before entering the high school coaching ranks.

The Eagles have seen 10 different football coaches in that time and have compiled a 44-158 record since introducing varsity football.

Those 10 coaches had an average shelf life of two years.

Current Alice Athletic Director and head football coach Kyle Atwood saw the longest tenure at Grape Creek with five seasons spanning from 2012 to 2016. Atwood took Grape Creek to their first ever playoff appearance and winning record (6-4) in 2014. The Eagles bowed out in the first round of the playoffs with a 62-21 loss to Post that year.

Following Atwood’s departure came Justin Mueller and his staff from White Oak, including Tanner Thiel and his wife, who coached the Roughneck softball team in addition to head coaching stints at Justin Northwest High School and Grand Saline High School where the duo stopped prior to Grape Creek and White Oak.

After one season, Mueller resigned from his post. That opened the door for Tanner and Grape Creek ISD to give their athletic programs the stability they’ve seemingly struggled to get from coaches.

On the softball diamond, the Lady Eagles have seen their fair share of success, appearing in the playoffs in four consecutive years including their berth in the 2018 installment.

The Thiels compared White Oak to Sonora and Wall because of the tradition across all sports.

Meanwhile, Grape Creek has never advanced past the first round of playoffs in football and their softball program’s last playoff appearance outside of the bi-district round came 14 years ago in 2004.

“It’s been a work in progress,” Tanner said. “This is a different place than where we came from that already had an established [winning] culture. We’ve laid the foundation with the discipline and the expectations. We’re both on the same page. We’ve been around enough successful programs to see that if you get their discipline and their work ethic and their character…the wins take care of themselves. Ultimately, that’s going to lead to success on and off the field.”

When the couple got the offer to come out to west Texas, they pounced on the challenge and the opportunity to build a new tradition with a program looking for its identity.

“Wherever we’ve been, we want to leave it better than when we got there,” Tanner said. “You may not see that at White Oak in terms of wins and losses. We made White Oak better through the relationships we made.”

“[Tanner] has always had a desire to go and make programs better,” Cara said. “At White Oak, we were starting to get complacent. We wanted that challenge of coming in and changing [the culture] and helping more because we didn’t necessarily feel like we were making as much difference as we could at a school like Grape Creek. Tanner, I think he would be so bored at a place like Highland Park where they reload every year. I think he needs that challenge of creating a culture.”

The couple’s experience at the college ranks has slowly started to plant the seed of a winning culture at Grape Creek, however.

“I think [our experience] gives us both credibility with the kids,” Tanner said. “Kids are smart. They know [what’s going on]. But once you tell them some stories and some experiences you’ve had at the college level, they start to think ‘Maybe this coach does know what he’s talking about.’ I think it validates for these kids a little bit that we’ve been at another level and, if we have any kids who want to make that jump, we can help them because we know what it takes to get to that level.”

“Our goal as coaches is not necessarily to win as many games as we possibly can, but it’s also to help the kids understand they can go to college and they can do the things they want to do, even if they don’t play,” Cara said. “We talk about the college experience in general and that helps; it builds relationships with them. Ultimately, that’s what we want.”

Only time will be able to show the fruit of the Thiel’s labor, but, one thing is for sure, Grape Creek is in good hands.

The Lady Eagles will open up the 2018 softball playoffs with a 2017 rematch with Alpine this Thursday, April 26, at 6 p.m. in Crane.

The Eagles were aligned into District 4-3A, Division II, with Anson, Ballinger, Bangs, Cisco, Coleman, Merkel and TLCA.