I went to Waltrip, lived in the Katy area for 18 years or so.I was very close to the program as I had several nephews and cousins play for them, which explains my connection to the school. Never was there anything said about recruiting. I don’t even remember any apartments near Katy HS back then. When you have a program such as the Tigers, people seek you out, they want their sons to play there. Katy’s proximity to the Greater Houston Area is a great drawing card, many ways to make a good living for your family within a 50 mile radius. Just look at the folks travelling east on IH-10 from the Katy Area to down town for their jobs.
High School recruitment in Texas has a rich history. Back in the day oil & gas operators were always ready to offer parents employment if their children were gifted. Stories out of West Texas, Golden Triangle & East Texas would make a fascinating read.
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Yes, they were. Eric Heitmann had a nice career with Stanford and the 49ers. But even on that squad there weren’t a ton of blue chip college recruits.
This is true. Lamar coaches regularly attend middle school games. When my son played football in middle school, I’d see them there.
But not Katy according to Katy alum. lol. What’s funny is when my high school wanted to be included in UIL, they said we’d have an unfair advantage because we can recruit. Oh the irony.
Didn’t need to have them. The OL was made of mammoths and had HS kids across from them. I watched them go against the #1 defense in the state at the Dome and they handed it off up the middle for 5 yards every time. No need to do anything else when the OL gets that kind of push.
Just a reply from one of the first NS grads who worked in the district for ten years before moving to Goose Creek. I still have family there whose daughter was a cheerleader and who are still season ticket holders. First, yes at one time a number of Furr (HISD) students would try to claim addresses in Galena Park ISD to attend GPHS or NS. The predominant reason was quality of education and yes some may have come for sports. Furr’s zone was really ship channel area and Maxey road.
Second, have you been to the NS area? The area was build out (homes) pretty much in the 90’s early 2000’s and the average price range is much lower than some of my family’s who live in Katy. NS is a predominately blue collar/low income area. And, there’s not a lot of wealth in this the area. NSHS is 80% free reduced and 70% Hispanics; 24% AA; 4% white.
Third, the athletic programs all coordinate from junior high up. So, every kid runs the same base plays ( like most developed programs). This leads to a huge pool of talent to draw as the middle schools feed only two high schools giving NS almost 4,800 students out of 22k enrollment.
Didn’t Katy recruited the top running back from South Carolina to move to Katy for his senior season?