Another high-water mark for Weddell
Legendary success at La Marque earns induction into Hall of Honor
Leland Surovik was thumbing through the Texas High School Coaches Association Hall of Honor in the late 2000s when he found an odd omission.
No Alan Weddell. He hadn’t been nominated for a spot among the state’s greats yet.
“It was just one of those things where everybody assumed he was in the Hall of Honor,” the Texas City football coach said of the former LaMarque staple. “I mean, you win three state championships, (103) wins over (eight) years (at La Marque) and all this and that, everybody just assumed.”
It didn’t take too long for that to be rectified, and Saturday, a long overdue nod came to fruition to kick off this year’s THSCA convention in San Antonio when Weddell was inducted into the THSCA Hall of Honor.
Built a powerhouse
Weddell’s career mark as a high school coach is 149-45-2 counting a 1982-89 stint at Victoria. He joined R.C. Slocum’s staff at Texas A&M in 1998.
Consider the honor the ultimate hat tip to the team of the 1990s. Weddell authored two state championship game appearances in 1993 and 1994 and three consecutive state titles from 1995-97.
Also inducted Saturday were Joe Clement (Tyler Lee, Kingsville, Huntsville); Wally Freytag (Austin Pearce, Austin Reagan); Allen Wilson (Paris, Tyler John Tyler, Dallas Carter), and Robert Woods (Wilmer Hutchins, Crowley, Cedar Hill, Dallas Jefferson).
During his last five years as La Marque’s head coach, from 1993-97, Weddell’s teams won 72 of 79 games.
From Derrick Foster to Greg Robinson-Randall and through a staff that would produce a respected coaching tree, La Marque ushered a golden age for the 409 area code.
Weddell’s teams are still entrenched in the record book. Only Waco High School in the 1920s can match six straight state title game appearances regardless of classification.
Larry Walker coached LaMarque to the 1998 state championship game berth when Weddell accepted an assistant job at Texas A&M.
Only Lake Travis, Celina, Sealy and Fort Hancock can claim more consecutive state titles.
La Marque was no stranger to becoming a recruiting pipeline for colleges in those days but it was not characterized by it either. The program’s glue became and still is its players bonding through an economically tough backdrop.
“That was what pulled
us together,” Weddell said. “We weren’t talking about kids who could go out to fancy select team summer camps. They had to work. They were the type of kids who would bond together, and it means even more to see the smile on their faces.”
The turkey tradition
The Astrodome was the stage for a lot of that winning. It became a second home.
Weddell is fond of “Turkey in the Dome.” The
Cougars got so used to playing in the Astrodome deep into the postseason, it was a regular Thanksgiving setting. They’d get the same dressing room each time, too.
“When you look at the Astrodome now, it doesn’t look the same to people as it looks to us at La Marque,” Weddell said.
Weddell’s coaching tree might be one of the more extensive around. Surovik is not only a former assistant under Weddell but played for him during the
inductee’s Victoria tenure in the 1980s.
A legacy that lingers
The tree includes Dean DeAtley at Brazoswood, Mark Kanipes at Santa Fe, Eric Wells at Dawson (and now in Pearland ISD administration) and David Suggs, who has had stints at Galveston Ball and Beaumont Ozen. Tony Heath, who built Pearland into a power before retiring in 2017, also is from the Weddell tree.
“I think everybody that left implemented the program that he implemented at La Marque,” Heath said of Weddell. “Coach on the run, coach with enthusiasm and care for kids.”
The 1997 season was when both Battle by the Bay participants became state champions in Class 5A’s respective divisions. La Marque is under the Texas City ISD umbrella these days.
The climate around La Marque’s football program has changed considerably. La Marque ISD’s financial and academic challenges led to its closure in 2016.
La Marque High School’s enrollment is stabilizing now at 688 but is smaller than it was nearly a decade ago. Hurricanes have hit the area hard.
Fan support hasn’t wavered, though. And while the 1990s created a Katy like standard for the Class 4A school, the winning hasn’t really hasn’t stopped either.
La Marque won state titles in 2003 and 2006 after Weddell’s departure. Shone Evans, who is indirectly a Weddell disciple through Heath and Surovik, enters his first season as La Marque head coach. The Cougars have made the playoffs eight straight seasons, seven of which came under Mike Jackson.
But the question remains: Could La Marque ever recapture its 1990s glory?
“I don’t know,” Surovik said, “butwe’re going to be shooting for it.”