ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE) – They have a new coach and young faces. The Menaul Panthers 2016 football team will have it’s challenges in the eight man game this season.

“It’s still really difficult, a lot of these kids never played football before so we are looking at teaching them even the very basics of positions, holes, gaps, stuff like that,” said head coach Josh Baca. “We got our work cut out for us for sure.”

Baca is a former Panther and comes from the class of 2000.

He inherits a team that finished 5-4 in 2015. It’s a team that graduated a lot of seniors and will be powered by sophomores and freshmen.

The Panthers are also doing things different on the field.

“We’re doing a complete overhaul of both systems, of both offense and defense,” said Baca. “That’s really what we have been focused on this past few weeks, trying to teach the kids the new terminology.”

The Panthers will open the season on the road at Cloudcroft September 2nd.