The call wasn't on his bingo card. Brooks Haack was deep into planning Houston Memorial's spring football camp when his athletic director and principal asked him to come in for a meeting. The ask: step in as interim baseball coach and guide the Mustangs through the rest of their season.
What followed was one of the more unlikely runs in recent Houston-area high school baseball. Memorial won 24 of its next 25 games and advanced all the way to Round Rock for the state final — a stretch that turned heads across UIL 6A and put Haack's name in a conversation few football coaches ever enter.
Haack credited the smoothness of the transition in part to relationships already built in the hallways. Players like Jake Earnest and Tanner Drda weren't strangers — many were football players who also suited up for baseball, and Haack had gotten to know them long before he ever stepped into the dugout. That familiarity, combined with a veteran group that understood playoff baseball, helped the Mustangs find their stride at exactly the right time.
The spring stretched Haack thin — juggling football responsibilities, CAD duties, and now a deep baseball playoff run — but he never framed it as a burden. Raised by two coaches and surrounded by educators in his family, Haack said his path was laid out early. The paycheck was never the point. Pouring into kids was.
Memorial came up one game short of a state championship, but the season redefined what Haack's coaching career looks like — and what Houston Memorial baseball is capable of.
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