After Eight Years Leading Leps Football, Kates Brothers Split Up

La Grange assistant head football coach and offensive coordinator Will Kates is leaving for another job, ending an eight year stint during which he worked side-by-side with his older brother Matt Kates, the Leps head football coach.

“It’s bittersweet. It’s tough,” said Will, who said he informed Matt recently in what turned into an emotional three-hour meeting at the fieldhouse. “It was a tough conversation. We shed some tears. We’ve built so much here.”

“It sure has been awesome,” Matt said.

Will has accepted the job of offensive coordinator at 6A Fort Worth Paschal, which is a return to the Metroplex, where he and his brothers grew up and his parents still live. His wife Janelle (who was a teacher at La Grange) has already been hired at a elementary up there too.

At Paschal, he will join forces with two old coaching friends (the new head coach and defensive coordinator) who both coached with Will at La Marque when they were all young assistant coaches and they won a state title together there in 2006.

This spring Will was a finalist for the Rockdale head coaching job (but was ultimately not chosen). Had he been picked that would have made for an interesting season opener this fall because the Leps open the 2020 season against the Tigers. He’s been a finalist for four head coaching jobs since he’s been at La Grange, and he said it’s still a huge goal of his to one day be a head coach.

But he said this move is much family-focused than anything else.

Their dad (who is a regular on the sidelines at some Leps games) suffered a stroke in April.

“He was at the hospital and nobody could see him (because of the coronavirus precautions),” Will said. “Both my parents are getting older. I want them to be able to see our kids little league games and things like that.”

Interestingly, Will will coach against the oldest Kates brother, Ged (who is the head coach at Richland High School) in the second game of the season this fall. At one time earlier in his career Will worked with brother Ged for two years as well. But it was middle broth

But it was middle brother Matt who lured Will to La Grange before the 2012 season and gave him the keys to the Leps offense.

“When we got him I never dreamed we’d keep him for eight years,” Matt said.

“When I got here,” Will said, “I was trying to help him get over the hump. They were close (the Leps had gone 4-6 in Matt’s first two years). I told Matt, ‘I’ve never not made the playoffs – and we’re going to beat Giddings.’’ Will was correct on both counts, as the Leps won the first of three straight district titles in 2012.

Will said two of his favorite memories are of beating Giddings that first season (to snap a nine-year La Grange losing streak to the Buffaloes) and then beating Hardin-Jefferson in a 2014 third round playoff game. during which Will kept calling plays that showcased the emerging talent of then-sophomore J.K. Dobbins. The only year the Kates brothers didn’t make the playoffs was 2017 when La Grange went 0-9, but Will said that’s when he and his brother did their most important coaching.

“That year you just so want the kids to have a taste of success, you exhaust every possibility,” Will said. “I learned as much that year as any year.”

Unlike most brotherly relationships, Will said he and his older brother Matt rarely disagreed.

“With Matt, we knew the buck stopped with him but he gave me the freedom and the reins to do what I wanted to do offensively,” Will said. “We didn’t have a lot of disagreements, ever.”

“Having him here,” Matt said, “has made the last eight years feel even more like home, Personally it’s tough but professionally I understand. He wants to be a head coach, the next step is that or to be a coordinator at a bigger school and that’s what he has an opportunity to do.

“Our kids are disappointed that their cousins are leaving but we have to be grateful for the time we had together because that was pretty neat ... Nineteen years into my career, I coached with my older brother seven of those years and then coached with Will with eight years, so 15 out of my 19 years I’ve coached with a brother, but also won a state title (as an assistant at La Marque) without one.”