Growing up as the son of a football coach helped guide Mike Fuller to the position he now holds — head football coach for the
Heritage (Colleyville) Panthers.
"There's something special about growing up in a field house,'' Fuller said. "I've been close to high school football for as long as I can remember.''
Mike Fuller, Heritage head coach
Photo by Mitch Hagy/FOTOSPORT
Fuller learned his lessons well. Heritage (10-1) defeated Hebron 50-24 Saturday night in Arlington's Cowboys Stadium to advance to the second playoff round in Class 5A Division II.
In recognition of the bi-district victory, Fuller was selected as the Dallas area Coach of the Week presented by Comerica Bank.
In his own playing days at Arlington High in the 1980s, Fuller was a quarterback.
Not surprising then that a trademark of Fuller teams through his years at Heritage and earlier in a stint at Coppell is excellent quarterback play.
Fuller calls current Heritage senior
Cody Thomas the best quarterback that he has coached. Against Hebron, the University of Oklahoma pledge completed 32 of 43 passes for 416 yards and four touchdowns.
For the season, the 6-foot-5, 210-pounder has thrown for 3,779 yards and 42 touchdowns with only five interceptions.
"He's incredible,'' Fuller said.
In the third game of Fuller's senior season in 1987, he suffered a broken collarbone. But the most disappointing night of his football career also produced the moment when Fuller knew he wanted to become a coach.
His arm was in a sling when Arlington coach Mike O'Brien asked Fuller to stand nearby on the sideline and perhaps offer suggestions in play calling.
Fuller noticed when his replacement faked to the tailback and ran the bootleg that no defender was assigned to the tailback. If the tailback were to continue to run down the opposite sideline, he would be all alone. The play wasn't in the playbook, but during a timeout the suggestion was acted upon. Once implemented, it worked.
"That's the moment I realized the influence a coach has on a game,'' Fuller said. "I wanted to be a coach.''
In the spirit of being the best teammate possible, something Fuller preaches to players now, he returned from his long injury absence and was able to help Arlington in its playoff run as a receiver.
Now he looks at the injury as a blessing in disguise.
"If I hadn't gotten hurt, I probably wouldn't have gone to Abilene Christian and that's where I met my wife. Every year a senior player of mine is injured and goes through disappointment. That's the worst part of coaching. I'm able to tell my story, give some perspective and let them know it is not the end of the world.''
Fuller and his wife of 20 years, Holly, have two children, Autumn (13) and Roman (10).
Dave Fuller, Mike's father, was an assistant coach for some of the top programs in North Texas including Southlake Carroll, Grapevine, Arlington and Grand Prairie. He was a staff member of several state championship teams.
Coaching runs in the Fuller family.
Photography by Vera
He came out of retirement last spring as a "consultant'' for Heritage.
"It was great getting his input,'' Fuller said.
Mike Fuller's younger brother Trent is in his second season as head coach at Lamar (Arlington). Lamar is also in the Class 5A Division II playoff bracket.
Should Heritage defeat 11-0 Midway (Waco) in an area playoff Saturday in Midlothian and should 6-5 Lamar beat 11-0 Abilene in an area playoff Friday at UT-Arlington's Maverick Stadium, Heritage and Lamar would face each other in the third round next week — brother vs. brother.
"We've talked about it and we'd be so excited to play each other,'' said Mike Fuller. "We scrimmaged each other this year, but we've never played each other in a game.''
As for Heritage‘s opponent this week, Midway has an outstanding quarterback in Kramer Robertson, who recently signed a baseball scholarship with LSU. Robertson is the son of Baylor University women's basketball coach Kim Mulkey.
Fuller said Thomas and Robertson are good friends by way of summer baseball.
"Midway is a very talented team, but something else comes across with them,'' said Fuller. "They just believe they are going to win. We've played teams just as talented that didn't have that kind of belief.''
Midway was a Class 4A Division I state finalist a year ago.
Fuller's record at Heritage is 52-17 and he believes this year's team is special. Six times it has come from behind to win.
"We've probably been more physical on defense with some past teams,'' said Fuller, "but this group does not get rattled.''
