Taylor’s stunning run unites a town

KATY — In the days following Katy’s playoff loss to North Shore two weeks ago, decorations around the high school started coming down.

Red-and-white posters wishing the Tigers luck in the next round were replaced with lit-up reindeer and red-and-green wreaths.

Slowly, the reminders that the football team wouldn’t be going to state faded as the area known as “Old Katy” started pumping up the holiday spirit instead.

For the past two decades, it’s a regular thing for the Katy Tigers to be playing football into December. It speaks to the excellence of the program coach Gary Joseph and his staff run that an entire community expects to plan its weekends around playoff games deep into the holiday season.

This year, it’s another football team in Katy that is still playing, though.

And it’s quite the shift in the suburban area just west of Houston.

Saturday afternoon, Katy Taylor will play Austin Westlake in the Class 6A Division II state semifinals in Waco.

Westlake is heavily favored. On message boards and social media, notes about the game include comments like, “Westlake isn’t playing the real Katy … they’ll win big.”

It’s not strange to see the doubt in the Mustangs.

This is the deepest the school has ever been in the playoffs. While it has been a powerhouse in other sports — the tennis team was a regular at the state tournament in the late ’90s and early 2000s — Taylor has never really been known for its football.

Even this year, as it is one of only a handful of schools left playing for a state championship, no one is taking the Mustangs seriously.

Why would they? Entering the playoffs, Taylor was 5-5 and finished fourth in District 19-6A.

They’d lost three straight games, including a 57-0 shutout against Katy. Since then, though, the Mustangs beat Elkins 51-41, Memorial 21-14 and Humble 35-14 to advance to the regional final where they beat Cypress Creek 58-20.

As they head to Waco this weekend to face Westlake, the Mustangs know they aren’t favored. But it doesn’t bother them.

This journey has been fun for them. And while others might doubt them, the Mustangs don’t doubt themselves.

“We are out there playing and having a blast,” senior running back Gavin Belue said. “It’s a brotherhood. We have come together in a lot of games, and we believe in ourselves. It’s OK if we are underdogs. It’s not a bad thing.”

Junior safety Trevor Woods said even in the hallways at the high school, students are baffled the Mustangs are still playing.

“I think they are happy for us, but I also have people come up to me and tell me how good the other team is and that we probably won’t win,” Woods said. “I don’t think anyone is used to having the football team still playing. We thought we could get here, but I’m not sure everyone else did.”

Taylor was the second school built in Katy ISD. Katy High had been around since 1898 and was the established high school in the area. Taylor opened in 1979 and immediately became Katy’s athletic rival.

Since then, six more high schools have opened in the district — each taking from the others’ areas and talent pools. Through it all, though, Katy has managed to stay one of the state’s most dominant football programs.

Belue was born and raised in Katy and knows the history and tradition of the Tigers.

“They’ve been so good for so long,” he said. “It’s what so many other schools strive to be. They deserve it. And they played a really good North Shore team. They could easily still be playing right now, too, which would be really cool.”

Belue said while the two schools had a rivalry years ago, it hasn’t been strong since he’s been in school.

“We aren’t beating them,” he said. “We’d like to, but we haven’t. I have friends on their team and they’ve been texting and wishing us luck and giving some good advice. I think they are backing us, and that’s really cool.”

The Mustangs have a lot of support. In general, people around Katy are chattering about Taylor. There is some surprise about the Mustangs’ postseason success, sure, but also a lot of excitement.

Taylor coach Chad Simmons said a big reason for the team’s winning ways at the right time of the year comes from all the players being healthy.

Simmons was an assistant coach all over the state — most recently at Katy’s Cinco Ranch since 1999 — before taking over the Mustangs’ head coaching job in January 2018.

He knows what goes into a playoff grind. Health plays a major role and right now, the Mustangs have it.

They also are building something. The Mustangs came into the year looking one way, and they look different now.

“From the beginning, we’ve stressed a lot of little things you have to do to build a program,” Simmons said. “It doesn’t happen overnight, but you see it over weeks and months. We see it now.”

Add health and overall improvement to the fact this team genuinely likes each other and playing together, and it’s been a winning combination.

“People might be surprised by us,” Woods said. “That’s OK with us. We’ve surprised ourselves a little, too, sometimes. But we really just love playing, and we believe we can go out there and win.”

The Mustangs don’t have the same reputation or tradition as the team everyone thinks of when they think of Katy.

But Taylor is in the midst of a special run — one the whole Katy area can get behind.