Another state championship winning head coach is on the move as Pearland ISD named Katy Paetow head coach B.J. Gotte the next head coach at Pearland High School. 

Gotte, who opened Paetow High School in January 2017, quickly established Katy’s newest high school as a power player in Class 5A, culminating with a Class 5A-Division I state championship and a 15-1 overall record in 2021. After a 3-7 varsity debut in 2018, Gotte’s Panthers ripped off three straight winning seasons, including a trip to the area playoffs in 2020, a season that was cut short due to a Covid outbreak during the playoffs. 

Gotte inherits a Pearland program that was good under former head coach Ricky Tullos (who departed to take the Bryan job in mid-January), but had failed to reach the elite heights previously reached  under head coach Tony Heath, the Oilers posted a 7-4 record in 2021 but they haven’t been past the area round of the playoffs since losing in the state title game in 2013. 

Coach Gotte is a graduate of Katy High School and was an assistant on four state title teams (Katy in 2003, 2012 and 2015 and LaMarque in 2006). He’s also been an assistant at Deer Park and Flower Mound Marcus. Expect Gotte to implement many of the principles and schemes that served him so well at Katy and in his establishment of the program at Paetow. 

As for Katy Paetow, don’t be surprised if Katy ISD keeps this opening in-house as the Panthers make the leap to Class 6A in 2022, Paetow the past three years has an impressive 32-6 overall record.