KOLBY HULL IS BACK TO HIS HOME AWAY FROM HOME AFTER LEAVING HOME.
TWCA’s first-year head football coach is a familiar face. Hull was the offensive coordinator under Randy Hollas from 2017-2019. But to return to north Houston for his first head coaching gig, Hull had to leave home—Pine Tree in east Texas—to do so.
Recommended Videos
“The head coaching position was obviously a big draw, but after a couple years away you start realizing where you really belong and the type of people you want to surround yourself with,” said Hull, the offensive line coach at Pine Tree High in Longview the last couple of years.
Pine Tree is Hull’s alma mater. He initially left TWCA to be closer to family as his father fell ill. Leaving to come back to The Woodlands was a difficult choice.
“For sure,” Hull said. “It was a conversation I needed to have with my parents before I ever decided to come back. Being able to be there and be around family... not just Pine Tree, but my wife is from Kilgore, which is 15 minutes away. Having my kid grow up around grandparents and having a daughter while I was there... having grandparents to have a lot of influence on grandkids was great. But there were a lot of draws coming back to a place where you feel comfortable.”
Hull is in his 15th year of coaching. He has brought a more physical, running-oriented offense to TWCA. Defensively, the Warriors are still running a 3-4 base, but what Hull and his staff are coaching kids to do out of it is different.
“It’s definitely a process,” Hull said. “It’s not a sprint, it’s a marathon. Bringing in new coordinators and staff... I only have two coaches who were here under the previous head coach. For us, it’s the idea of putting in our style of football and raising expectations every week to get them to a point that they understand where they need to be.”
VYPE caught up with the first-year head coach.
VYPE: What is most different for you this time around at TWCA than the previous time?
HULL: The biggest difference between this time and last time is when I left, we were still in Division III TAPPS and this time we’re Division II. The level that we’re playing this time around is a lot better than what we’ve played the last time we were here. It’s a matter of doing what we need to do to be successful on this new level of football.
VYPE: How has the acclimation been to being a head coach and not just a coordinator or position coach?
HULL: It’s more about the entire program instead of just the offense. You’re focused more on the entire personality of the team, and it puts things into a bigger scope. I think more broadly and more sociologically about things, looking at things from a group perspective.
VYPE: What are the fundamentals and philosophy behind the way you coach and what you believe in?
HULL: We preach being together and being a family as much as possible. If you can’t trust the guy next to you, it’s very difficult to play good football. The last time I was here, we had a group of kids that believed in each other and loved each other and were a family, and they were very successful. Pine Tree had a similar group of kids. Whenever you see what the recipe for success is, it’s taking that and adding a degree of physicality to it.