800 is not just a number

Friday, we were able to witness one of the rarest moments as an educator. Navasota High School’s Lady Rattler Basketball Coach, Coach Tommy Gates, got his 800th career victory as a Head Coach. 800!!!

That number is almost beyond my comprehension. For comparison, I had to do the math. I had the privilege of coaching for 17 years. I was a head baseball coach for 10 years. In those 10 years, we had some pretty good teams that made some deep playoff runs and had some good seasons. We also never had a losing season. Our best season with the highest win total was when we went 24-12 one year. However, at our average wins per season, I would have had to coach for almost 48 years to get to win number 800! 48 YEARS!!!

Coach Gates and the Lady Rattler basketball teams have been able to accomplish that feat in only 32 years of coaching! That is an AVERAGE of 25 wins per season! Gates has spent 22 of his 32-year coaching career here at Navasota High School.

Unofficial records of retired Texas High School basketball coaches would put Coach Gates’ active number of 800 wins at number 10 of all-time winningest coaches in the state of Texas, only 22 wins behind the number nine slot.

Friday, several of us were able to go see Coach Gates and the Lady Rattlers get win #800 with an impressive win on the road over a good Ft. Bend Austin team. Our Lady Rattlers won with a gritty defensive performance and hustle. Both are consistent traits of a Coach Gates’ team year in and year out.

Congratulations to Coach Tommy Gates, his assistant coaches, and all of the Lady Rattler players along the road to 800!

#WeAreNavasota

Dr. Stu Musick is the Superintendent of Schools for Navasota Independent School District.