Stony Point Head Football Coach Dustin Pleasant - Photo courtesy of Stony Point assistant
VYPE’s “Fresh Faces” series introduces new Head Football Coaches in the Austin area…
George W. Bush was President of the United States when Stony Point High School named Craig Cheshire their new Head Football Coach.
“I’ve been eyeing this for a long time,” New Tigers Head Coach Dustin Pleasant acknowledged his desire to coach at Stony Point where Cheshire had roamed the sidelines for 23 seasons at the helm. “And when the opportunity came open, I prayed real hard about it, tried to do the right things and God and Jesus answered. And so, I gladly accepted.”
Born in Dublin, Texas, just outside of Stephenville, Pleasant graduated from Temple High School where he played for legendary Lions Head Coach Bob McQueen. He began his college career as an option quarterback at Air Force Preparatory School, but the experience “was a little bit different than I expected,” Pleasant explained cryptically.
“I got recruited out and so I played for the University of Wyoming under Joe Glenn and Dick Coney,” he continued. “Very special time at Laramie. We were not very good at first and then we ended up winning a bowl game my sophomore year. And then I finished up at Tarleton State University.”
A career in coaching soon called.
“I had a couple tryouts with the CFL. I was given a green light and then reality hit. They went with somebody else and so I had to put on my big boy pants and welcome to the real world!” Pleasant chuckled.
Pleasant began his coaching career as an assistant at Pflugerville Connally under Howard McMahan, then coached under Bob Shipley at Belton. He eventually made his way to McNeil and then to Rouse under former head coach Josh Mann, an experience Pleasant calls a “very, very special time.”
Pleasant’s first head coaching job at Carter Riverside in Fort Worth briefly took him outside the Austin area before he made his way back to Hutto as offensive coordinator and assistant head coach.
“It put me right here, where I want to be. And I plan to be here for a long time,” Pleasant grinned.
Now 43-years-old, he, along with his wife, Candice, and daughters Cambrie (8) and Delilah (2), is grateful to be in a place that he’d long coveted.
“Back when I was a young coordinator and I worked at Round Rock McNeil, and just being at Rouse, Stony Point has been a job that I thought fit my personality. Blue collar. I just thought then that it was a great community that loved and supported each other.
“It’s an opportunity and it’s an opportunity I don’t take lightly. Especially one I’ve always wanted,” Pleasant emphasized. He also acknowledged the irony of taking over a team that he’d coached against last season as an assistant in Hutto.
“After playing these guys last year, I sat there with a lot of coaches on the Hutto staff and said, ‘Man, there’s a lot of talent (at Stony Point),’ he recalled. “We lost some talent from the previous team, but there’s still a lot of talent here. And kids are hungry for what we call ‘CTC.’ And that’s, ‘Care, Trust, Commit.’ And these kids are invested in it. They’re working their butts off. It hasn’t been easy with all the construction and all the summer workouts but let me tell you. These kids are eager and hungry for love and hungry to win.”
Pleasant takes over a team that hasn’t made the playoffs since 2019 and knows 2026 isn’t going to be a cakewalk. Perennial powers Westlake and Lake Travis join all five Round Rock ISD teams in a newly reconfigured District 25-6A, replacing Hutto, Manor, Vandegrift and Vista Ridge. It’s a compact 7-team district that leaves little room for error. But Pleasant appears to relish the challenge.
“I’m glad they (Westlake and Lake Travis) are (in the district,)” he declared. “I always tell kids you gotta play against the best to be the best. So, we will never back down from anybody. But my expectations are, first of all, we run a good, smooth program. Our kids are winning in the right way, and they learn how to win.
“But we’re gonna make the playoffs. We want to make the playoffs. That’s our goal. And we want a chance to play after Thanksgiving when everybody’s at home. I got a taste of that at Rouse and it’s addictive. And so, everybody’s sitting at home, I wanta be playing!”
On the eve of what he hopes will be his own quarter-century on the sidelines, Dustin Pleasant introduces this new era of Tigers Football with a declaration:
“Stony Point community and the Austin area, we’re here with a chip on our shoulder. We’re out to prove things to ourselves and what we can do here at The Point.”
