It’s Football Time in Texas
It is football time in Katy, Texas, USA. After a 10-3 season in 2025 that ended in a razor-thin third round playoff defeat to Summer Creek, the Tigers enter this season once again looking up at the Beltway Bullies district of North Shore, Summer Creek, Atascocita, and CE King. The three losses last season were Katy’s most in a season since 2016 and 2008 before that. While the Tigers were slow off the starting block last sason, they looked much more like a vintage Katy team by the playoffs.
I am most interested to see what Katy looks like to start this season against Atascocita after what I saw last year against Dickinson in game 1. It became apparent quickly against the Gators that Katy was some way off the pace, primarily from a physicality perspective, and would have to play the long game development wise to arrive in the post-season with a real chance to compete with the better teams. The Tigers managed to achieve a good physical level in the end, but it took the full season to arrive there.
So who’s returning?
Given the returning talent, particularly at the quarterback position (Mason Hartwell) and along the offensive line (Isaac Coughran, Wyatt Moebes, LaDrayce Marshall among others) , coupled with some important experience on defense; I’m optimistic Katy will start this season at a higher overall physical level by comparison and hopefully be ready to execute more effectively early as a result.
I focus on the physical level given Katy’s style of play and due to the opponents’ general attacking approach of forcing the Tigers to play in space and match up with speed. As I’ve become fond of saying lately, we can’t be both slower and less physical than the adversary. A big chunk of Katy’s reputation was built on putting fast people on their backsides.
With Atascocita as game 1 at home, we will see very quickly where 2026 starts. Atascocita is guaranteed Division 2 playoff wise now with North Shore and Summer Creek leading that district enrollment wise. Head coach Kyle Coats took over the job this off-season after succeeding at College Park and aims to help this program try and step out of North Shore’s shadow. I saw his work up close these past few years, and I have a ton of respect for him as a program leader.
Changes at Atascocita
Atasocita made a home run hire, and it is a matter of time before he takes them to a new level. They’ve never exceeded 12 wins in a season, and it might not take him much time to top that. His impact there already is evident from reports I’ve seen during the off-season and in the current season preamble. His preferred system on offense is a creative, unpredictable spread attack that forces a defense to account for every inch of the field. It relies heavily on the quarterback being a quick, efficient distributor of the football (point guard/conductor).
The quarterback will be junior Corbin Smejkal (6’2, 200), who followed Coats from College Park. The clear strength of Atascocita going into the season is their skill talent at receiver and defensive back in addition to senior defensive line stand-out Jason Johnson (#91). Senior DB Trenton Blaylock (#2) is one of the top prospects in Texas. They are loaded with skill talent per usual.
Katy’s Defense
Katy’s secondary, which enters this season having gained young players important experience a year ago, will encounter a challenging match-up immediately. Juniors Colt Venier and David Olotu-Judah along with seniors Caleb Ritter and Sydney Nguyen give the Tigers a nice foundation to work with compared to a year ago. They will have serious help in the front seven from the likes of OLB Aferi Davies, MLB Wes Sewell to go with the junkyard Dawgs Josiah Martinez, Terry Brister and Munachi Obeta up front.
Signifcantly, Katy welcomed senior MLB Cade Haug from Kingwood this off-season. Haug was a star on the northeast side in the Beltway Bullies district and is one of the best defensive prospects in Texas. If Katy can add depth around this foundation, the talent and experience combo points to this becoming one of Katy’s stronger units potentially in some time.
Katy’s Offense
On offense, I am most interested to see which players step up at the skill positions around the experience of players like Fayo George (H-back/utility), Scotty Zuehlke (FB), and Braylon Pettaway (WR). Junior tight end Cash Sanders is one to watch at a position that’s always been essential for Katy. Running back returns some experience with Tony Manuel and CJ Watts. Also, MJ Benas, whom Katy fans have not been properly acquainted with yet, is healthy and ready to go for 2026 as an option.
He was an option to start for Katy as a sophomore in 2024 before unfortunate injuries. One of the most important early aspects of the season will be seeing who steps forward to claim the feature back mantle. Over the longer term, Katy needs at least one or two receivers to emerge with Pettaway as reliable targets. Special teams was an Achilles heel for Katy last season, and it will be a key determining factor in how good this year’s team can become. It was the difference between Katy being a third round team and potentially having a chance to play for a state championship last sason.
With Cardae Mack finally having graduated, Atascocita will present a very worthy and challenging adversary to start the season. With how the new alignment fell, there’s a very real possibility this is part 1 of 2 for this match-up in 2026. Despite a change at head coach and with Mack gone, I expect Atascocita to start fast with Coats and show up in Katy looking to make an immediate statement of intent. In that district, they know they are the undisputed measuring stick of the Greater Houston area right now. When the season starts next week, we will see if Katy has anything to say about that just yet.
