AUSTIN (KXAN) — The Stony Point Tigers began the season with something to prove, as they were reigning district champs with a new head coach, Antoine Thompson.

Thompson became the youngest head coach in school history when he took the helm over the summer, and his energy is infectious.

“Even some days when you feel like you don’t have energy and you can’t go, you just say, ‘well I’m going to go for him’,” senior guard JohnEric Moseley said. “Because every day I’m going to go hard because I owe him that little bit.”

His approach has produced results, as the Tigers have won nearly every game they’ve played, and are ranked 4th in the TABC rankings for Class 6A.

Thompson, a graduate of Manor and a longtime assistant at LBJ, has been wanting a chance to prove that he can lead a program to success.

So far at Stony Point, he’s making the most of his first shot as a head coach.

“When I had an opportunity, I was going to take my opportunity with whatever group I have, give them my all, make sure that they’re giving their all,” Thompson said.

Now with the playoffs approaching, the Tigers acknowledge that it’s time to kick things into another gear, which might be scary for other teams in the field.”

“From the start, like we wanted to win state, like we knew we had all of the pieces to go to state,” junior forward Josiah Moseley explained. “But we want to win state, that’s what we want to do.”

As the playoffs approach, the Tigers are not resting on their laurels, but they also want to smell the roses of their success.

“It’s an outstanding feeling, I try not to think about it a lot, but when in situations like this, it’s inevitable so it’s outstanding to feel this way,” Thompson said.

Stony Point faces McNeil on Friday night at home, tipoff is set for 7pm.