The Hamshire-Fannett Longhorns are gearing up for a true homecoming game as they host Huntington in a non-district matchup at Longhorn Stadium Friday.

Most teams schedule homecoming games a few weeks into the season even though the have played multiple homes games up to that point. That’s not the casse for Hamshire-Fannett.

This will be the first of the year for the Longhorns (1-2) and will be a first time the fans get a chance to see first-year head coach Mark Waggoner lead his team onto the field.

“We haven’t had a scrimmage or a game at home this year,” Waggoner said. “I’m very excited. It’s very exciting that we don’t have to go on the road. You don’t have to get ton a bus for a couple of hours. Our first game was a two-and-a-half hour bus ride. That one was rough. Kountze was about an hour. (East Chambers) was five minutes. That was down the road.”

The Longhorns started the season off with a 16-13 loss against Hughes Springs in Center. The following week, HF got their first win 43-22 victory over Kountze.

They were not able to carry the momentum forward, losing to their rivals East Chambers 35-13 in the Rice Bowl.

“We have a really young team,” Waggoner said. “We are only returning three starters on defense and four on offense. We have lot of young guys starting. I think there was about 8,000 in attendance for the East Chambers game. I saw some of the younger players’ eyes get big. That surprised me a bit, but I’m glad they got to experience it.”

Waggoner said the team is trying to learn for their mistakes so they can be prepared for district play.

“Right now we are trying to focus on ourselves more than the opponent,” he said. “We want to make sure we are doing everything right. If that lines up with the opponent, great. We want to make sure we are ready for district.”

Waggoner said the players are buying in and making fewer mistakes as they become familiar with the new schemes.

“They believe in what we are doing,” he said. “Coming off a season like last year, we kind of worried about if they would hang their heads if things aren’t going right and they haven’t. They have been ready to get back to work and improve.”

The Longhorns have three games before they begin district play against Hardin-Jefferson Oct. 12.

This week, they face a team also looking to get their second win of season and get to .500. Huntington (1-2) won their opening game of the season at Warren before dropping two consecutive road losses to Diboll and Brook Hill, respectively. The point differentials favor HF who have only been outscored 73-69 compared to Huntington, who has been outscored 111-44, the majority of which came in a 55-0 blowout to Diboll.

Kickoff is set for 7:30 at Longhorn Stadium on Friday.