Orange Beach is ready to get to work under a new head coach, Wade Waldrop, who has been building trust in his players through the offseason. Although it’s just one of the changes they’ve experienced recently, Waldrop says this group of Makos has adapted to all of the newness.

“It’s been a good process, the kids have been very receptive. In my time as a coach and an educator, one thing I’ve learned is that kids are super resilient. They’ve had a lot of change, but they’ve handled it well,” Waldrop said at Gulf Coast Media Day. “We’ve got our staff in place and I’d say at the beginning of June the staff came together and we got everyone here and I thought we made some strides at that point but we’re all excited.”

Waldrop serves as the third head coach in Orange Beach’s fifth varsity season but junior tight end and defensive end Logan Kruse has already learned a thing or two from the new staff.

“Focus on the little things, showing us how to make us an overall better football player so if we focus on the little things we can get better day by day,” Kruse said.

Some of the little things include weight room attendance in the offseason where the staff established an expectation of how often the players were supposed to be there.

“We challenged them at the beginning of the summer to have a set number of days that we expected them to be there and all of the guys I’ve been counting on have been there and doing the things we need to do,” Waldrop said.

For Kruse, and senior tight end and defensive end Austin Beck, they welcomed the challenge.

“It feels normal for me to show up every day and go to work,” Beck said.

“It set the standard, anybody can be a dog for a day or a week, but it’s showing up every day that is the hardest thing,” Kruse said.

In showing up every day, Waldrop has felt the Makos’ mentality begin to shift as they’ve continued to gain confidence in themselves.

“The vibe in the locker room is moving, it’s turning. I would say this to these guys, I’ve said it publicly, we’re gaining confidence,” Waldrop said. “Last year was a hard year for these young men to go through … especially coming off a very successful season the year before. You don’t look back on that every day, but you need to know what that feels like, so you know what you’re working for.”

Waldrop knows it won’t happen overnight but getting the kids bought into what the coaches are preaching has been one thing they’ve been working on.

“Buy-in is huge. How do you measure that? I think it comes from how the players are interacting with coaches, how we’re interacting with one another. I think that is going to be a big part of our success,” Waldrop said. “A big word in our community is grit, and it starts at the top with our city and down into our schools. We want our kids to have grit, we want them to have toughness, and I think that’s very measurable.”

However, Beck hasn’t taken long to buy into the physicality the coaches are looking for.

“I’m just ready to hit people,” Beck said.

Check out the Makos' full interview as part of the third-annual Gulf Coast Media Day here.