HOUSTON — Wisdom High School’s football program went an entire decade without a single win. Now, the school in southwest Houston is off to the best start in school history and they’re inspiring the entire community.
Up and down the halls of Wisdom High School, there’s an excitement that hasn’t been felt in decades.
“Absolutely incredible,” Wisdom principal Kenneth Brantley II said. “Exciting, exhilarating, game-changing.”
That’s because not even halfway through the season, the school’s football team has won more games than the program had in nearly a quarter-century of seasons combined.
“Since 1998, or whatever it was,” head football coach Tony Herrera said. “And last year, we won two games and so that was a huge deal.”
Remarkably it’s Herrera’s first season as Wisdom’s head coach, after serving the last two seasons an assistant.
“I saw the potential. I know the challenges that came with the program,” he said.
Coming from powerhouse programs, his first impression was a stark contrast.
“The first day I showed up here, it was three kids, three kids, and I was just kind of like, wow,” he said.
Compare that to where his team is today.
“Just a huge improvement,” Herrera said. “And I think a lot of it has to do with I have a great group of seniors that, you know, have really bought into everything that we've asked them to do.”
That includes seniors like captains Yohana Kaniaru and defensive end Khari Mayeaux.
“It's good to be on the winning side of things,” Kaniaru said.
“It feels good,” Mayeaux added. “Everyone's looking forward to something.”
They’ve seen the impact the team’s success has had on the entire student body.
“it is warm and welcoming and you can genuinely feel that when you walk through the hallways,” said Mayeaux.
It’s a feeling principal Brantley said goes well beyond the campus.
“I really believe that our football team is an embodiment of who we want to be as a community,” he said.
It’s a community whose diversity – with more than 50 nationalities and 20 languages represented at the school – is reflected on the field.
“Kids that have never heard of football, who think football is around balls kicking it is,” Herrera said.
But no matter how many ways you say it, it seems now everyone is listening to the same voice.
“It’s not the words that come out of my mouth,” Herrera said “It’s the actions.”
They’re actions of a team that’s already made history.
“You’re going to deal with adversity, ups and downs,” Herrera said. “The same things that you're going to encounter in life, being able to coach that, that's why I do what I do.”
So far this season, the Wisdom Generals have outscored its opponents 198-22.