BATON ROUGE - The rebuild continues as the Independence Tigers enter year two of the Sam Messina era. Year one was a difficult one as the Tigers finished 2-8 after going 1-9 in 2024.

On the bright side for the Tigers, Independence returns six starters on both sides of the ball, including three on the offensive line. It's a group that's been through the grinder of a difficult two-win season, and it seems that the roster may be better of for it.

Messina raved about his team's participation in offseason workouts. He's spoken about how he and his staff have been trying to change the culture in this program. To do that, you need buy-in from the players, and it seems that Messina has that.

The Tigers haven't had a winning season since 2015. Messina looks to fix that and have his program back competing for district titles soon.