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ARP — There was a span of 15 years where Arp had six different head coaches with none staying more than three years at a time.

But when Dale Irwin arrived, that all changed and stability was brought to the Tigers’ program.

“I think I’ve been here since 1914 or something like that,” Irwin joked.

Irwin actually took over as the head coach in 2003 and is entering his 19th season over the Tigers, leading the program to 127 wins during that time.

“I’ve enjoyed my time here,” Irwin said. “It’s been a great place. They’ve taken care of us, my family and all of my coaches.”

While the head coach has remained the same, there were some staff changes in the offseason as Arp welcomed in four new assistant coaches — offensive coordinator Matt Langley, defensive coordinator Wes Schminkey, Dakota Alexander and Henry Brown.

“The new guys that have come in are tremendous coaches,” Irwin said. “They’re going to do a tremendous job for us. They’ve got a lot of pride and a lot of knowledge, and that’s going to help us, especially with our youth.”

Arp went 2-7 last season but only lost four lettermen from that squad. That experience should help lead to a turnaround season in 2021.

“A lot of them had to play on varsity as freshmen and sophomores, and they were kind of thrown to the wolves,” Irwin said. “That’s tough, especially around East Texas. They’ve got a lot of good experience. We’ve got to take the good things that happened last year and use them and the negative things we just forget about and move on. We had a lot of learning lessons last year. Hopefully we can apply those to this year and get a lot better.”

Among the returners are seniors Hayden Wright and Ty Cook, who both play on the offensive and defensive lines.

“We’ve got a lot of people back this year, and we have quite a few seniors,” Wright said. “We just want to see how we can do, and hopefully we can go far this year in the playoffs.”

“It’s going pretty good with the new coaches and them putting in a good gameplan,” Cook said. “I feel like we will do pretty good this year.”

Irwin said the first several practices went about as well as he could’ve hoped

“It’s been one of the better camps we’ve had in five or six years,” Irwin said. “It’s been really good. The kids have bought in all summer and worked hard all summer. They’re in pretty good shape coming in, so we don’t have to spend a lot of time running. We can actually play football, and that’s what we’re doing this year.”

Arp will face Malakoff in a scrimmage at 6 p.m. Friday in Malakoff. The Tigers will host Hughes Springs in the season opener on Aug. 27.