HOUSTON — At the intersection of a new direction, one word speaks volumes at Houston Christian University.
“Belief has to have action. If not, it’s just words on a wall. and so we talk about to have belief, you have to have action in what you’re being able to do," head football coach Braxton Harris said.
Harris, who has a Ted Lasso-inspired "BELIEVE" sign hanging in his office, has managed to build a culture akin to the beloved TV coach.
It's only been about a year since Harris took over the football program at HCU, but from day one his message has rung loud and clear.
“I believe this -- by creating the best person, the best young man, we’re going to create the best student, he’s gonna be the best student-athlete and in turn, he’s going to be the best football player on Saturday," Harris said at his December 2022 press conference.
But Harris was walking into a program that had won just two games the year before and none the year before that.
Safety Caleb Flagg and lineman Nolan Hay were among the many student-athletes who could have transferred.
“He made it from a team to a brotherhood," Flagg said.
“He convinced me to stay for being a better person than a football player and that was the thing, he wanted to coach us to be better men at the end of the day," Hay said.
Instead, they, along with many of their teammates, took Harris' words to heart.
“The choice that they made are uncommon choices. They’ve chosen to make the grass green where they’re at in that spot," Harris said. "There wasn’t any proof. There was a vision, and we knew what we wanted to be able to go do and we knew how we had to go work to do it, but there was no guarantees the success was going to come, especially this early."
Soon, the players began to take on the identity of their coach.
“When you see someone else happy and all bright, it’s just like a chain reaction, once one person goes, then the next person goes, then the whole team, then the people around the team as well," Harris said.
The Huskies finished the season 6-5. It was the first winning season in program history.
“It’s not a how do you make it better, it’s how do we get better? Because we believe that if each of us individually in the program gets better, then our program is going to exponentially grow faster," Harris said.
Harris -- who played Texas high school football himself -- has not only kept local talent like Hay (Katy Taylor) and Flagg (North Shore) home for now, he’s aiming to do it for years to come.
“People, they can come see a North Shore product doing the next level," Flagg said.
Sometimes before you can see, you have to believe.
“Being able to take what our young men have done here and our staff has done and you’re 6-5 winning football program and being able to sell the City of Houston with a Division I football program that we believe has the opportunity to compete for a conference championship next year -- we’re so excited to be able to go sell that," Harris said.