WOODVILLE — The Wilkinson County Christian Academy seniors were sick of losing, so they decided to do something about it.

And did they ever. Under the leadership of first-year head coach Ray McDaniel, the Rams won a district title and made it to the second round of the MAIS Class A playoffs.

After winning just two games last season, the Rams finished 11-2 with just a regular-season loss to Centreville Academy and a postseason loss to Riverfield Academy.

Because of that dramatic turnaround, McDaniel was chosen as The Natchez Democrat’s All-Metro Coach of the Year. But McDaniel credited his team’s seniors for the best season WCCA has had in recent history.

“We just worked hard,” McDaniel said. “We worked hard all through the spring and the summer, and into the fall. The kids really got to believing that they could win, and that was the biggest difference.

“We had a good group of seniors who had not had a whole lot of success, and they were tired of losing. I guess they were willing to try anything different if they thought they had a chance. They bought in, and it paid off for them.”

McDaniel’s rookie season as a head coach was not something he went into unprepared, he said.

“I thought I was ready for it,” McDaniel said. “I’ve been doing this 13 years, and I thought we had a chance to be pretty good coming into this year with the kids we had coming back.”

For McDaniel, year one as head coach did not come without at least some familiarity to the Rams’ program. He was defensive coordinator last season under then-head coach Billy Caston. Even though the Rams only won two games last year, McDaniel said he thought that team was better than two wins.

“I thought we had a chance to win a few more games,” McDaniel said. “We lost a few games that were close ones. They were young — we probably had some guys that had never played football before. A year of experience helped a whole lot this year.”

When you have players that haven’t played organized football, McDaniel said the biggest challenge was getting them to learn key fundamentals.

“You have come from the ground up with fundamentals that you would think most kids know when they get to high school,” McDaniel said. “Some of ours didn’t, so we just had to start with the basics and work our way up.”

Even though he oversaw an entire defensive unit for the Rams last season, McDaniel said there were definitely some big differences in being a head coach versus just being a coordinator.

“You oversee everything, from getting pre-game meals ready to practice schedules, and that was the biggest difference in it,” McDaniel said. “You just have to deal with everyone on an everyday basis.”

Even though McDaniel said he was very pleased with the season, he admitted he was at least a little surprised with just how successful this year’s team was.

“I thought we were going to be good, but I never would have thought we’d win 11 games in a season,” McDaniel said. “That was kind of a surprise for me. I wish we’d have kept going (in the playoffs), but sometimes it doesn’t work out that way.”

McDaniel said he wanted to thank his assistant coaches Josh Fortiet, Albert Lewis, David Littleton and Mitchell McGraw for their help this season.