[email\u00a0protected]<\/a><\/p>\nRoy Woods knew that he had to work harder than most players to make the Plano East football team.<\/p>\n
Woods was an undersized defensive back who stood\u00a05-foot-5. He understood that other teams would center their offensive game plans around exploiting his lack of size. But he accepted the challenge, all while hearing chirping from opposing players well before the games started.<\/p>\n
\u201cWeek to week, I was a captain, and when we were walking out for the coin toss, I heard giggles and smiles from the other team,\u201d he said. \u201cThey said that they would be coming at me. I took it as pride and determination and was ready to take it on. I took it on with a smile. The coaches never doubted me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Woods\u2019 determination was noticed by\u00a0The Dallas Morning News, which named him defensive player of the week after he posted two interceptions and made several game-saving tackles during a\u00a01985 non-district\u00a0game against Dallas Skyline. After the season, he was named to the\u00a0all-district\u00a0and\u00a0All-Metroplex\u00a0teams.<\/p>\n
The lasting impact that Woods, a 1986 Plano East graduate, made on the Panthers football team during the 1984 and 1985 seasons was celebrated\u00a0Oct. 23, when he was inducted into the\u00a0Plano East Football Hall of Honor. The ceremony took place between the first and second quarters of Plano East\u2019s home game against Plano at Tom Kimbrough Stadium.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt means a lot,\u201d he said. \u201cI grew up in Plano, went to Christie Elementary, Carpenter Middle School, Clark High School and graduated from Plano East. It\u2019s a dream come true to be in this position.\u201d<\/p>\n
Woods went to Plano Senior High School football games with his father growing up. At the time, Plano Senior was the only high school in the city. When Plano East opened in\u00a01981, he had the option of attending either Plano Senior or Plano East. He decided on Plano East because he wanted to help start a new tradition.<\/p>\n
It didn\u2019t take long for Plano East to make its mark, and Woods was a big reason why the Panthers achieved a lot of success in their infancy. Plano East made the third round of the playoffs both his junior and senior seasons while earning its first-ever win against Plano Senior.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were not a team full of D-I athletes, but we had a great brotherhood,\u201d he said. \u201cA few of us played both ways. We were close. Many of the same guys that I played with came to my Hall of Honor induction 40 years later. It shows how close-knit of a football team we were.\u201d<\/p>\n
Woods played with former Plano East head coach\u00a0Joey McCullough. McCullough was an outside linebacker for the Panthers. He later served as the Panthers\u2019 head coach for eight seasons, from\u00a02014 until retiring from Plano ISD in 2021.<\/p>\n
McCullough helped point Woods in the right direction after Woods decided to leave the corporate world following a\u00a030-year career with Geico.<\/p>\n
Woods also credited former Plano Senior head coach\u00a0Gerald Brence\u00a0for helping him with his transition into teaching, including the process of obtaining an alternative teaching certification. Woods has been teaching at Plano East and serving as the Panthers\u2019 linebackers coach for the last\u00a0eight seasons.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t look at it as work now,\u201d Woods said. \u201cI love kids, love coaching. To do it now full time is a blessing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Woods has served on the committee for the Plano East Football Hall of Honor for the last\u00a0three years.<\/p>\n
Each year, the seven-member committee \u2014 composed of principals, former coaches, former players and athletic directors \u2014 reviews athletes from past seasons and nominates them for induction.<\/p>\n
He said the committee is hopeful to induct at least four more former players during the\u00a02026 season.
Detrick Propes, Landis Durham and Kenny McEntyre\u00a0were inducted earlier this season.<\/p>\n
Woods said Plano East head coach\u00a0Tony Benedetto\u00a0has been fully supportive of the committee\u2019s initiatives and goals.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was very supportive,\u201d Woods said. \u201cHe listened to all of our ideas and provided support and assistance.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Roy Woods, a former cornerback and Class of 1986 Plano East graduate, was inducted into the football team\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":48183,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[160,162,161],"class_list":{"0":"post-48182","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-plano","8":"tag-plano","9":"tag-plano-headlines","10":"tag-plano-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48182","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48182"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48182\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48183"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48182"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48182"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48182"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}