The Tigers are working hard in spring football from all indications I have, and I’m excited to see what’s in store four months from now when the season kickoff is upon us. Katy is in a better position now than what it was last year after graduating one of the program’s all-time great players, in addition to other factors that ended up playing out over summer and into the season.
I was proud of the way the 2023 team battled to try and make the best season they could. While falling short of their ultimate goal with the OT loss to Cy Fair, I truly felt like that group did what it needed to give itself the best chances in the post-season with the talent and experience on hand. The key every season is maximizing the collective potential available within the group wherever that ultimately leads in the playoffs.
In the current environment with seemingly open athletic transfers (AAU type situation developing) and Katy ISD continuing to grow, the challenge for Katy football to stay among the elite is as difficult as it has ever been in my opinion. Look around the state at top level programs, and there really is no direct comparison to Katy in terms of another program having a similar set of circumstances.
For the way things have evolved over the past five or so years, the football objectives are much the same as they have always been for Katy. Katy has never been known for churning out high level college prospects.
I would tell you Katy has been blessed with very, very good football players who may not necessarily fit the physical template colleges pursue, I will take football players over underwear Olympians every day. Of course, Katy has sent guys to the next level who’ve done very well but when compared to other programs around the state, we have never been considered among the elites in prospect production.
The best Katy teams have taken these football players I mentioned above and convinced them things like accountability and attention to detail are critically important to themselves as people (and their futures as men) and to the collective development of the team from freshman to senior year.
By the time a class reaches its senior year, you have a group of young men who are completely bought in and committed. In teaching these principles to ever class that arrives on campus, a stacking effect is created over time which has led to the staggering success of the program over many years through a constantly changing landscape.
At times, the instinct is to throw your hands up and sacrifice the things that created success in the first place in order to keep up with the crowd. But success did not come from following a crowd. It came from going the other way and doing things other programs either could not do or were not committed enough to do.
So, in the current era of the transfer portal/NIL/AAU type influence where the focus is turning more towards individual and selfish motives, perhaps the collective approach Katy’s built a multi-decade dynasty upon remains the best way to go.
Go Tigers. Is it August yet?
