Many may assume high school football mainly revolves around your skills on the field, but to new Head Football Coach and Athletics Coordinator William Blaylock, how you practice is how you play when it comes to being successful in life.
Blaylock comes from a long history of football and developed his passion for it when he was 7 or 8 years old. He played flag football and found himself drawn to the competitiveness of the sport. “Being a big kid, the field was the one place where I could kind of go to be physical and not be in trouble,” Blaylock said.
His desire to be on the field continued to increase as he got older. When he eventually began attending John Tyler High School in Tyler, Texas, he played football as an offensive lineman. He played the center and guard positions.
“Center is the best athlete on the field, but it’s the guy that snaps the ball to the quarterback, and that’s what I was known for,” Blaylock said.
The sport followed him to college, where he played football for Tulane University for two years and at Baylor University for two years. Blaylock’s inspiration to begin coaching sparked when he finished college football, but he knew his path with the sport was not over yet.
“Initially, [it was] just to stay around football, because I love the game, but once I really got into it, I found that I really love helping young people, then watching them grow and watching them be successful,” Blaylock said. “Using athletics is kind of a caveat to do so because the academic part is first. But athletics can be a tool to help motivate kids, and I like what I see in them no matter if it’s football or not.”
His first coaching experience was at West Texas A&M University as a graduate assistant. He worked at this from 2007 to 2009. Prior to his addition to our school, he coached football at Estacado High School in Lubbock, Texas. He moved to Cypress Ranch because he said it was a great opportunity for him. He said he wanted to come back to Houston because his family loves it here.
“When a job like Cypress Ranch comes open, it’s kind of one of those deals you couldn’t turn down,” Blaylock said. “The more I researched it, the more I liked it. And then when it was offered to me, it was a no brainer.”
His goal for the season is to be successful on the field, but he also wants to build young men up, teach them how to win and teach them how to be successful in life.
“You have to know how to play the game. Sports, to me, is a lot similar to life. You’re going to go through ups and downs,” Blaylock said. “There’s going to be good plays, bad plays, but you got to handle yourself with a certain level of accountability and with a certain level of professionalism—the same we’re going to do in the real world. We had a situation in our scrimmage where it got kind of rough, but our kids understood we’re not coming off the sideline. We’re not going to get out of character because they represent more than just themselves.”
Blaylock said he is intending on helping to get as many of his seniors into college as possible. He said he is not intending on implementing any new rules into the program, but he wants to establish new habits. He said he is not big on lots of rules, but his main goal is just teaching his players how to be a family with everybody on campus. Blaylock said he intends to have the team support and attend other sports games on campus, including basketball, softball, volleyball, baseball and more. He said he believes high school is really about being a family and building a culture; one where everybody is all in and supporting everybody else.
Blaylock, the new Cypress Ranch football coach and athletic coordinator, is here to help develop the morale, the passion and the success of his players.
