Ready for Some Football

Even before Tuesday’s announcement by the UIL, La Grange athletic director and head football coach Matt Kates was confident that football would be played here this fall.

Tuesday morning, as he watched his athletes work at Leopard Stadium with a mask on his face, he said: “I think we’ll be playing, but what form or fashion remains to be determined,” Kates said. “Whatever they give us, we’ll be ready.”

At that time Kates speculated bigger schools would probably have to start later than smaller ones, but that some nondistrict games might be wiped off the schedule.

About an hour later Kates’ speculation was proved partially right and partially wrong. The UIL made it official Tuesday that football practices can begin Aug. 3 with games beginning as they have been all along on Aug. 27 for 4A schools like La Grange and smaller.

Class 6A and 5A schools will start a month later.

Of course everything is subject to changes in coronavirus spread and/or state and local rule changes.

But as of now, fans will be allowed to watch games at 50-percent of stadium capacity

“Graduation proved that we can get a lot of people in these stands while still being socially distant,” Kates said.

Coaching Changes

In other La Grange football news, former La Grange football player Carlos Guevara has been hired as the team’s new offensive line coach. He had previously been coaching in Brenham.

“This is the first time I’ve been able to hire an ex-player and that’s really special,” Kates said.

With the departure of Assistant Head Coach/Offensive Coordinator Will Kates, longtime La Grange coach (and LHS grad) David Cooper has been promoted to assistant head coach and Robert Barber has been promoted to offensive coordinator.