One more for Gordon
Up until this season as a Gordon Longhorn, senior quarterback / safety Noah Kostiha has shared the same locker room his father once used whenever he attended high school. Kostiha had that and any potential opportunity of his son one day using it when a tornado left all the facilities in ruins on May 18.
“ So much history got wiped away,” said Kostiha.
Gordon’ s quest for a third consecutive state championship is more than just winning football games in 2025. It’ s about adjusting to the change in all normalcy for head coach Mike Reed.
Allowing the team to take all of July off after a long 2024 across all major sports, Reed was pleased by the community’ s response in overcoming the tornado’ s effects and focusing on capturing title No. 3.
“ Even though you’ ve moved your weight room from a facility that they’ ve only known since junior high to lifting in Holiday Ford while cars are getting the oil changed and tires fixed, our attendance stayed at 95 % for June,” said Reed.
Gordon has also received assistance from Santo and
Stephenville in the use of their facilities throughout the summer as the town enters phase two of the rebuilding process.
After phase one, in the aftermath of seeing what they had to work with, Reed states that a plan is written down for the next steps, which includes a playable practice field area for football by the beginning of August.
Unfortunately, the plan includes Reed’ s expectation of not being able to play a home game in 2025.
“ We may be the first team in UIL history to win a state championship with 15 away games,” said the Longhorn head coach.
AUGUST 2025 | FIRST DOWN 43