It is nearly football time in Tigerland, and I’m excited to see the Katy Tigers kick the season off at Sam Vitanza Stadium in Dickinson. When I look at where this group is poised compared to recent seasons, I am quietly confident of the product Katy will put on the field.
Last off-season was especially tumultuous for reasons that were well-documented and discussed all season and, given the hand last year’s team was dealt pre-season and how things developed in-season, they achieved what I would have expected in relation to the rest of the state. The Tigers obviously could have gone another round further with how close the Cy Fair game was and faced the North Shore giant, but my perception of last year was a rebuilding effort where a ~3 round run, depending on the playoff match-ups was the most “realistic” outcome. Obviously, inside the field house, the goals always are the ultimate.
Setting the Bar
In my opinion, the bar is as high as it has ever been to win state in either Division in the top classification. Dominance always has run in cycles since class 5A was formed in 1980. You had Permian, Judson, and Plano establish themselves as the reference programs for the state through the mid-90s. In the late 90s, Katy won its first big school state championship and our run continued from there. Southlake joined the 5A party and immediately went on a dominant run in the 2000s. North Shore won its first state title in 2003, and Euless Trinity emerged as a powerhouse. As we continued our run in the 2010s, Allen became a juggernaut and Lake Travis joined the 6A level shortly after. Then, in 2018-2019 time frame, North Shore, Duncanville and Westlake all exploded at the same time. DeSoto has joined this group now.
Dominant runs of a handful of programs are not a new thing. What is unique about these programs is they historically have been four of the biggest “sleeping giants” in Texas. That was the reputation of these programs for a long time. They had huge potential, but never could quite put it all together. So, the fact we’ve seen each of these programs realize their potential around the same time is remarkable. Each of them has produced arguably the most talented overall teams I have seen in the 30 plus years I’ve been paying attention during this run we’ve seen from 2018 to present day.
For the chasing pack, of which Katy now finds itself in, the challenge hasn’t been at this sort of level since those years in the 80s and 90s when you had the Permian, Judson and Plano hegemony I talked about above.
So what does that mean?
The current Tier 1 programs have set the bar at a level to where you can’t have any major weaknesses as a team in terms of physical talent or strategy. In many ways, this is the way it always has been. What’s different now is the growth we’ve seen across the entire state and how bloated many ISDs have become.
It is not a coincidence to me that the most dominant 6A programs in the state right now mainly are in single school ISDs or in what I call “lower interference areas” where a school’s attendance zone is not under great threat from internal or external growth forces. When you couple this with the relaxed athletic transfer environment, at least in less scrutinized areas than a Katy ISD, thanks to the trickle down effect of the college portal on high school, the task is a big one for any programs with designs on challenging the current big boys.
When I zero in from the Katy perspective, the fundamental pillars of what led the program to success in the first place still apply from the emphasis on team, eliminating distractions and paying attention to detail. Talent wise, the greatest equalizing force in the game remains a top tier defense in my opinion. Katy built a huge part of its foundation on having a consistently high level defense. In recent seasons, we have seen a few chinks in this armor exposed in the playoffs and against the sort of elite talent we have encountered from North Shore and Westlake in particular.
Where is Katy at?
Offense and special teams obviously have to perform consistently as well. The bottom line is Katy can’t play the way it wants to without a top level defense. Each phase of the game is interconnected, especially in the way the system has been built at Katy. Therefore, when one phase fails, you tend to see the entire system appear worse than it usually does.
Katy’s blueprint still can be as successful today as it has been over decades if the program is able maximize the potential of the system through the development over each class from freshman to senior year. The game is much different today than it was in the late 90s, particularly as it relates to playing defense against 4 and 5 receiver track relay offenses, but it’s no so different to where the fundamental aspects of what it takes to succeed no longer apply.
Defensively, I look forward to seeing how Katy continues to adapt to what opponents are presenting in the spread. We saw some experimentation from Katy last year, particularly regarding the traditional Will linebacker and Drop positions having to play more in space/coverage, than anything they would have done in the past.
On offense, I liked the shifting and unbalanced wrinkles Katy introduced to try and throw opponents off the scent. The early season production from the passing game caught me totally by pleasant surprise, and I look for additional precision and adaptability from Katy this season with an experienced QB and lessons learned from the breakdowns in overall execution against Cy Fair last year.
As the season progresses
While the season evolves greatly from August to November and December with reps, one thing that will not change greatly is the overall physical quality and level you see in game one. The talent you have game 1 is mostly what you will have by season’s end, so I pay close attention to how the match-ups play out in non-district and what the overall physical level of the team appears to be. It is generally a pretty good indicator for the big picture.
In any case, I’m excited to start this season and continue following the Katy Tiger story. Conversely, others may believe that Katy’s reign at the top is over and that nine state championships will be their final milestone. And, who knows, maybe it is. When I first stepped foot on Katy’s campus as a freshman in 1996, I wasn’t sure we’d have another one after 1959. 1994 was a moonshot as far as we were concerned back then, and we finished runners up. I’m not going to complain about nine state championships. But one thing I can guarantee you about this community in Katy, Texas, is it will never stop striving for anything less than the top. That’s why this community has been able to produce one of the most successful football programs in Texas and United States history. Katy folks and their children are different.
