The newly mustachioed head coach of the Flathead Braves was peeved at his team near the end of Wednesday’s practice.

He watched his offense, which had just scored a touchdown, shrug and head back to see their coach for the next play call. Not a single player ran to the end zone to celebrate.

When the Braves threw for another score on the next play, no one shrugged. The offense sprinted, arms in the air, to chest-bump, slap, hoot and holler with their teammates.

So Kyle Samson smiled.

The Braves were having fun.

It’s homecoming week at Flathead High School and fun is on the agenda for the Braves (4-2) who host Butte (1-5) tonight at 7 p.m. at Legends Stadium.

“Everybody talks about distractions,” Samson said of the weeklong festival that is homecoming.

“I look at it more as everybody’s got a lot of school pride, they’re having a lot of fun with all the theme days and we’ll have a big assembly (today). It’s a lot of fun.”

About those theme days: the day Samson was sporting a neatly groomed Fu Manchu mustache was Western Wednesday, which included a few students riding horses to school. Alas, the end of Western Wednesday was scheduled to bring with it the end of his mustache.

Costumes, assemblies and facial hair aside, even as external expectations rise and wins pile up, the Braves’ coaching staff continues preaching the importance of enjoying every day.

“Football players and coaches are creatures of habit but we try to have some fun with them,” Samson said. “And these kids don’t lose their focus. We definitely have some periods in practice when we’re having fun and enjoying ourselves but they also understand that there are times where we have to be focused and locked in and make sure we’re doing the right things.”

In just his second season, Samson’s program is showing signs of a turnaround on and off the field after nearly a decade of futility. If the Braves win their fifth game tonight, it will make this season the program’s winningest since 2008.

And with a combination of winning, fun and homecoming, the Braves are expecting an electric atmosphere at Legends.

“(Homecoming) is a reminder that we’re part of a community and that entire community has a lot of pride in what we do,” Joel Robinson, the Braves’ linebacker’s coach and a 1999 Flathead graduate, said.

Lex Hilliard, the former NFL running back and Braves assistant coach, also looks back fondly when he thinks of homecoming.

“Shoot, it was awesome,” Hilliard said of playing on homecoming.

“It seems like a lot more black and orange comes out that week.”

The Braves’ homecoming opponent has dropped five games in a row, with the Bulldogs losing by an average of more than 30 points over that stretch.

Still, Samson, as expected, would not downplay the competition.

“I think Butte will give us a heck of a game,” he said.

“I think they’re a very good football team that could easily be 3-3 or 4-2. We’re in for a great challenge.”

It’s a challenge that Flathead figures to have fun with, just the way their coach likes it.