Winning Up Front - Gary Joseph & the Katy HS Staff

Coach Joseph began his coaching career at Luling High School.  After advancing in jobs at Brazosport and Austin Westlake, he then moved to Katy High School where he has served for thirty-nine years.  He was the KHS defensive coordinator and then assistant head coach, helping the Tigers win three state championships in five final appearances, before becoming the KHS head coach in 2004.  

During his 17-year tenure as head coach, the Katy Tigers have made it to the state championship game nine times, winning five state championships (2007, 2008, 2012, 2015, 2020) while also winning 15 district championships in seventeen years; Joseph’s record is currently 228-22. 

  Coach Joseph is part of the 2016 inductees into the Texas High School Sports Hall of Fame. Coach Joseph has been honored by the Katy Chamber of Commerce as Katy’s 2007 Citizen of the Year and in 2010 was named one of Houston’s Top 100 Professionals.  In 2012 he was voted into the Greater Houston Football Coaches’ Association Ronnie Bell Hall of Honor. In 2019 he was a national finalist for Power of Influence Award from the American Football Coaches Association. In 2020, he received the Tom Landry Award acknowledging outstanding contributions to the game of football by a Texas high school coach. 

Coach Joseph has served on the Board of Directors of the THSCA, the GHFCA, and on the coaching staff of five prestigious all-star games, including the 2009 THSCA game where he served as the head coach for the South All Stars.  Most importantly in 2017 and 2018 he served as President of the prestigious Texas High School Coaches Association and received the 2018 UIL Sponsor Excellence Award.   He has spoken about Katy Football and its impact on our kids at many clinics throughout the state and nation. 

For the Joseph family, football is a true tradition. Coach Joseph’s father, Eddie Joseph, led a successful coaching career at Wharton High School and later became executive vice president of Texas High School Coaches Association. Coach Joseph and his wife of 41 years, Sheila, have three children, all of who have also followed in their father’s and grandfather’s footsteps. Their son, Jon, has a degree in education and lives Sonora, TX; son Jeff is the LBer coach at Southlake Carroll, and their daughter, Julie, has coached at several schools in Texas, while her husband Eman Naghavi, a former KHS football player, coaches O Line at Georgia State University. Julie and Eman are parents to the Joseph’s three granddaughters, Austin Ann, Ryan Reece, and Mason Marie. The Josephs are members of St. Bartholomew Catholic Church, where Gary has served as a lector and EOM for over thirty-five years.