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Paetow’s Teagle steps down as head football coach
Paetow head football coach Lonnie Teagle stepped down from his position Tuesday during an inquiry by Katy ISD Police into an allegation of inappropriate contact with a student.
Assistant coach David Hicks Sr. has been named interim head coach.
Teagle was in his first year at the helm of the Panthers. Paetow is 3-3 overall, 2-2 in District 19-6A play.
Teagle’s Twitter and Facebook accounts are no longer active. Katy ISD’s Paetow coaches directory shows the campus athletic coordinator, which Teagle served as, as “TBD.”
Katy ISD said in a statement released to VYPE Tuesday afternoon:
"The Katy ISD Police has investigated an allegation concerning a former head football coach. The individual resigned during the inquiry and the case has since been referred to the Harris County District Attorney’s Office.
The safety of Katy ISD students and staff is the District’s top priority. Whenever the District is made aware of an allegation, the accused is immediately removed from their District assignment(s), while District personnel work swiftly with law enforcement and other agencies to conduct a thorough investigation to ensure the safety and well-being of all students."
Offensive coordinator Trey Payne is also no longer with the program.
\u201cLet it be know that Trey Payne\u2019s resignation was completely separate from Lonnie Teagle\u2019s resignation. Two separate entities. Thank you.\u201d— Trey Payne, M. Ed (@Trey Payne, M. Ed) 1665515273
The coaches directory states Matt Rhodes as the new offensive coordinator.
Defensive coordinator Stephen Howard remains.
Teagle took over a Paetow program in the spring that won the Class 5A-Division I state title last year, the second school in Katy ISD to win a football state championship. He was hired following the departure of B.J. Gotte to Pearland High School.
It was a homecoming of sorts for Teagle, a Missouri City native and 2001 graduate of Fort Bend Elkins High.
“Our family has desired to come back home and back to the Houston area where all of our family is,” Teagle said at the time of his hiring. “This is an unbelievable opportunity to come to Paetow, where they’re coming off winning a state championship, in Katy ISD, one of the premier districts in the state of Texas. It was a no-brainer.”
Teagle spent the last two seasons as offensive coordinator and running backs coach at Denton Ryan. He was hired as running backs coach in 2019 before being promoted in the summer of 2020. He helped the Raiders to the Class 5A-Division I state runner-up finish in 2019 and the state championship in 2020.
Hicks Sr., a former standout linebacker at Grambling State who spent time in the NFL with the Kansas City Chiefs, is the father of Paetow senior defensive end David “DJ” Hicks Jr., a five-star recruit, Texas A&M commit and the No. 9 overall prospect in the nation for the Class of 2023.
Hicks Sr. has also been an assistant coach at Allen High School and defensive line coach and recruiting coordinator at Morton Ranch High School, where Hicks Jr. spent the first two years of his high school career.
Paetow plays Cinco Ranch (5-2, 4-1 district) in a game with considerable District 19-6A playoff implications at 7 p.m. Friday at Rhodes Stadium in Katy.
‘The Dream Kid:’ Paetow’s Hicks commits to A&M
KATY—The maroon Texas A&M football helmet David “DJ” Hicks Jr. placed on the table in front of him in the Paetow High cafeteria Wednesday after verbally commiting to the Aggies live on ESPN has been in his room since 2011, when his father won it at a raffle and gave it to his son.
Hicks’ first big-time offer was from Texas A&M. The first big-time camp he attended in eighth grade was Texas A&M’s.
So, while Oklahoma was thought by several recruiting sites to be the heavy favorite to land Paetow’s 6-foot-4, 270-pound five-star defensive end, perhaps the Aggies were simply fate.
“I’m really at a loss for words, pretty much,” said Hicks, the country’s No. 9 overall prospect and the No. 1 player in Texas for the class of 2023. “It was (A&M assistant head coach/defensive line coach) Coach (Elijah) Robertson and everybody else there and how close it is to home.
“I’m excited, and now I can focus on my senior year. I want to go to state and then go to A&M and do the best I can to the best of my ability.”
\u201c.@PaetowFootball 5-star DE @DJ2g23 talks about picking @AggieFootball. #txhsfb @KPRC2RandyMc @KatyISDAthletic @PaetowSportsMed @PaetowHS @TexAgs @katyisd\u201d— VYPE Houston (@VYPE Houston) 1664398478
Hicks chose A&M over the Sooners, Michigan State, Oregon, Miami, Alabama and Texas. As a child, his dream school was Texas. But once the recruiting process started in the eighth grade, it was all A&M.
“It’s the Aggie network,” said his father David Sr., an assistant coach at Paetow and former linebacker standout at Grambling State who played a year with the NFL’s Kansas City Chiefs. “It does a great job of prepping him. It started at his old school (Morton Ranch High). The principal there, Ms. (Julie) Hinson, is an Aggie. Coming here, (Paetow principal) Ms. (Mindy) Dickerson is also an Aggie. (A&M) do a great job with the network and surround that program with great people, like Coach Robertson and (A&M defensive ends coach) Coach (Terry) Price. Having that stability and building that relationship over time helped him grow into wanting to be an Aggie.”
David Sr. said he and his son started seriously training and working out when DJ was in the sixth grade. Initially, DJ was undersized for his age. But as he hit a growth spurt, the Hickses started attending camps, camp tours and more camps.
“He caught COVID (in 2020), went into his two-week quarantine and came out of it 25 pounds bigger,” David Sr. said, laughing. “I don’t know how. COVID weight, I guess. He played the next season 40 pounds bigger.”
Hicks—who played his first two years of high school at Morton Ranch, played his junior season at Allen and then returned home to finish his career as a Panther—will be joining teammate and Paetow four-star linebacker Daymion Sanford at A&M.
Sanford, who said Hicks is “very smart and very physical,” said he didn’t try to influence his teammate’s decision in any way.
“He told me he’s been going up there since he was in eighth grade,” Sanford said. “That alone says it all.”
\u201c.@PaetowFootball 5-star DE @DJ2g23 picks @AggieFootball. #txhsfb @KPRC2RandyMc @KatyISDAthletic @PaetowSportsMed @PaetowHS\u201d— VYPE Houston (@VYPE Houston) 1664397348
While Hicks has the physical tools for stardom, coaches and teammates said it’s the intangibles that separate him.
“The first impression was the first day he got here,” Paetow head coach Lonnie Teagle said. “He came in with all the stars and all that and he came in humbly. He fit right in and started working. There’s some guys who carry an aura and are big-headed, and he just fit in. He’s one of the most humble stars I’ve been around.
“He’s not satisfied with just being talented. He wants to maximize it and is always working. He’s always the last one off the field after practice and always doing the extra. That’s what makes him elite.”
“It’s the way he works,” David Sr. said. “When you have talent and you work like you don’t have talent, that’s when you really get it. I’ve never seen anyone outwork him. He’s always on time. He’s never made a ‘C.’ He’s humble. He never has an attitude. He’s like the dream kid.”
Paetow 5-star senior defensive end David "DJ" Hicks Jr., middle, smiles as his parents look on Wednesday after Hicks verbally committed to play for Texas A&M.Dennis Silva II | VYPE Media
Hicks said after the first game of his sophomore season at Morton Ranch, when he received his first collegiate offer from SMU, he knew was going to play college football somewhere.
“It’s been crazy, especially starting so young when I was in the eighth grade to now,” he said. “I’m glad I finally found home.”