Colleyville Covenant one win from TAPPS title after nearly not having football in 2019
Colleyville Covenant goes for its second TAPPS state championship in four seasons when it faces Houston Cypress Christian at Waco Midway on Saturday night, but the story of what happened the year they didn’t win it all might be more remarkable.
The program nearly didn’t have a season in 2019. After a coaching change, players began to transfer out. They lost players to Grapevine Faith, Colleyville Heritage, Nolan Catholic and Grapevine High.
The Cougars were down to 15 players just two weeks before the start of the season, and that’s when the new coach began recruiting athletes from school’s other sports teams, mostly basketball and baseball players, to boost the numbers.
“There was panic among our parents because they weren’t sure if we were going to have a season,” Covenant coach Phil Towe said. “We were two days away from making a decision.”
Towe, who is an assistant basketball coach, had agreed to step to step in and fill the void.
“Vernon [Wells] and I met one night and did our best to make sure we had a team,” said Towe, who has been with the school for five seasons. “Not having football for a year would be devastating. I’m not sure if you can recover from that.”
Wells, a former MLB all star and standout football player at Arlington Bowie, coaches the defense at Covenant. He’s one of three professional athletes on the staff along with former NFL players James Reed and Correll Buckhalter.
“Vernon asked his two sons to play and I asked my son to play,” Towe said. “They’re not football players. But we rallied the guys and there was a complete buy-in and we created our own brotherhood.”
Wells’ two sons, sophomore Christian and senior Jayce, and Towe’s son, senior Jonah joined the squad.
“The summer before last season I wasn’t going to play. They called me and asked us to play,” Jayce Wells said. “Then we got 20 others to commit to play. Great things happen when you stay united. We all said this isn’t about one person, it’s about all of us, and we owe it to ourselves to finish this off the right way.”
The Cougars are seeking to restore that championship pedigree on Saturday at 7 p.m. It’s the fourth time in the last five seasons that the team has reached the final four.
“Looking back, it was definitely the right decision,” Wells said.
The Cougars went from 15 players to 37 at the start of the regular season. One of those players was Austin Scheets. He came to Covenant at the start of last season from L.D. Bell.
“I wasn’t even planning on playing football, but coach Towe convinced me to give it a shot and I’ve formed some bonds with people I’ll have for the rest of my life,” Scheets said.
He played quarterback for the first time this season and has accounted for 2,000 yards and 20 touchdowns.
“We have such a special team who’s fought through so much adversity this year,” Scheets said. “I wouldn’t trade the guys on this team for anyone.”
Covenant started last season 1-4, but won some big games down the stretch to make the playoffs. There the Cougars won two playoff games and reached the state semifinal.
With much of the core back this season, the Cougars are undefeated and a win away from a state title.
“It says a lot about the character of these guys and the sacrifice they’ve made for each other,” Towe said. “They’re all so close and they strongly believe in each other.”
Added Jayce Wells, “We’re resilient. We’ve gone through about everything you can think of, especially us seniors. We’ve dealt with multiple quarantines, and yet we’ve stuck together through it all. We knew this year wasn’t going to be easy, but getting here just shows how tough we are.”
