Without a home stadium, La Porte’s football team finds solace in winning

The Bulldogs have not played a true home game since 2022, but they're playing in a Texas high school football regional final on Saturday

La Porte last played a true home game in 2022, and it plays district rival Angleton (11-2) in the Class 5A Division I Region III on Saturday / Courtesy La Porte football

It’s been a nomadic couple of seasons for La Porte High’s football team, which is without a home stadium for the time being.

With their on-campus Bulldog Stadium undergoing a $56 million renovation—complete with 500 more seats, a new development center with a weight room on the north end, an expanded track and a new press box—the Bulldogs played “home” games at Barbers Hill High School last year, 24 miles from campus, and Deer Park’s Abshier Stadium this season, 12 miles away.

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And all La Porte has done is win a couple of district championships over that time, and, this year, author its best season since 2011.

“It’s not easy,” said third-year head coach Kevin Berneathy, whose Bulldogs last played a true home game on Oct. 21, 2022, versus Baytown Sterling. “It’s built a huge amount of toughness in our team. We can go anywhere and play. It’s a privilege to coach a bunch of kids that are mature enough to handle that.”

Not only are the Bulldogs in the regional final for the first time in 13 years, they’ve made it past the first round of the postseason for the first time since 2016.

La Porte (10-3) plays district rival Angleton (11-2) in the Class 5A Division I Region III final at 2 p.m. Saturday at NRG Stadium.

It didn’t look like they’d ever get here. The Bulldogs started the season 0-3.

“We talk all the time how no matter the situation of the game, you still have to play hard,” Berneathy said. “Our kids understand that as long as we do the little things, and don’t let the emotion of the game overtake the fact that we still have to play the game … they understand they can be successful.”

Ever since Berneathy stepped onto campus three years ago, the Bulldogs operate under a “one team, one heartbeat” mantra defined by toughness, strength and physicality.

Berneathy learned from Jon Kay, the former legendary head coach at North Shore High and current Rice University linebackers coach, about the importance of the weight room on a program. So, he has the Bulldogs lifting five days a week in-season.

They lift weights Monday through Thursday, don’t lift on game day and lift Saturday. They even lifted on Thanksgiving Day last week.

During the summer, they lift weights four times a week.

“In high school football, speed definitely matters. Athleticism definitely matters,” Berneathy said. “But we can control how strong we get, and some of those other things we can’t control. We’re going to have linemen benching over 300 pounds and skill players benching over 200 pounds. We’re going to be a tough game when people play us.”

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Berneathy said he knew the Bulldogs could have a special year after its 49-35 road loss to defending state champion Port Neches-Groves in Week 3. Berneathy lauded his team’s fight despite missing six defensive starters because of injury.

“I saw all these kids step in and played so hard,” Berneathy said. “Doing what they were supposed to do. After that game, I told myself we had a really good team. We just had to get healthy.”

Bulldog Stadium is undergoing a $56 million renovation—complete with 500 more seats, a new development center with a weight room on the north end, an expanded track and a new press box. / Courtesy La Porte football

They’re at full strength now, ripping off 10 wins in a row.

It’s a special time for a special, unselfish group of kids.

Exhibit “A” is senior Ricky Sandolph. A 1,000-yard rusher last year, Sandolph, unsolicited, approached Berneathy after the team’s bye week and offered to move to receiver.

It would allow running back Sean Simon to be promoted from the freshman team, where he was scoring “almost every time he had the ball,” Berneathy said.

Sandolph embraced a new role for the betterment of the team. He has 754 yards and 10 touchdowns on 110 carries, with 122 yards and a touchdown on 15 catches.

“Ricky is a special young man,” Berneathy said. “He’s one of the most important pieces of our team, from a leadership and toughness aspect.”

Berneathy speaks admirably of Sandolph and senior running back Tyresse Barnes’ acceptance of Simon. Instead of seeing the youngster as a threat for playing time or carries, they welcomed him and taught him how to succeed as a La Porte varsity football player.

“There’s not many better kids in this world than Tyresse Barnes and Ricky Sandolph,” Berneathy said.

Barnes, Berneathy said, “is the most underrated player in the state of Texas.” The 5-foot-8, 178-pounder has 1,502 rushing yards and 19 touchdowns, averaging 7.9 yards per carry.

“Everybody wants the tall kid with the typical size,” Berneathy said. “But if you want a kid that’s going to go and do it better than your 6-2 kid, and you don’t have to worry about his feelings because he’s doing it for the team … you might want to go to Tyresse Barnes.”

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Simon, the biggest of the trio at 5-foot-10, 185 pounds, has 1,541 rushing yards and 20 touchdowns in only 10 games.

“It’s the craziest thing I’ve ever seen,” Berneathy said of his star freshman. “We knew he was a very talented player in junior high. We felt he needed to mature some, so he started the year on the freshman team. He showed growth.

“He’s someone who takes the games very seriously. He truly cares for his friends and teammates. He’s very athletic and gifted, but he doesn’t use that as a crutch. He just continues to work and improve.”

Simon, Barnes and Sandolph are instrumental in Berneathy’s modernized version of the Wing-T offense, which he was baptized in, interestingly enough, when he was the offensive line coach at La Porte from 2008-2012. The run game accounts for 87 percent of the Bulldogs’ total offensive yardage.

In 2015, Berneathy really grew into the offense as offensive coordinator at Angleton under then-coach Ryan Roark, who adopted the scheme from his days in west Texas.

Berneathy was given full reins of the offense in his second year at Angleton. In his third, the Wildcats made the Class 5A state semifinals.

“I just felt it was a very adaptable scheme, a very adaptable offense,” he said. “You can make it as open or closed as you want. I fell in love with the philosophy behind it. Our kids do a great job understanding the schemes and adjustments.”

Now Berneathy is set to face off against Angleton for the second time this season. Angleton head coach Jason Brittain was the Wildcats’ defensive coordinator when Berneathy was the offensive coordinator seven years ago.

The first meeting, a 35-28 La Porte win on Nov. 1, awarded the Bulldogs the District 11-5A Division I title.

This showdown gets the winner a step closer to the state championship game in two weeks.

“They’re a good football team that’s tough, so it’s going to mean something to be able to beat a team like that, regardless of the history,” Berneathy said. “We’ve got our work cut out for us.”

But the Bulldogs are not ones to shy away from work. They have proven to have what it takes to play anyone, anytime, anywhere.

Literally.

“It’s been a very rewarding season,” said Berneathy, who said the new stadium is “getting close” and hopes to play in it next season. “The fact that we don’t have a home stadium right now, the kids have never used that as an excuse. It’s a great group of seniors that has led us to where we are. A great group to coach and a great coaching staff to be around. The community’s rallied around us, no matter where we’ve been, and it’s an awesome sight to see.”

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