Technically, the La Porte Bulldogs are 9-0 as the home team in the last two seasons. They just haven’t played a single game in their home stadium.

La Porte ISD voters approved a $235 million bond package that included a brand new, $56 million football stadium in May 2023. That kicked off a two-year process of demolishing the old Bulldog Stadium and then rebuilding the improved version on the same site. It also kicked off La Porte’s football team for the 2023 and 2024 seasons. The Bulldogs played all home games at Barbers Hill High School in 2023 and then Deer Park’s Abshier Stadium, their arch-rival, in 2024.

Head coach Kevin Berneathy and his program responded by winning back-to-back district championships and making the regional finals for the first time since 2011.

Berneathy was actually on staff back then as an offensive line coach when Jeff LaReau had the team rolling. La Porte transitioned from a pro-style, I-formation offense to the Wing-T and went 24-4 over the 2011 and 2012 seasons. The smash-mouth style offense personified the blue-collar work ethic of the surrounding community, a suburb tucked between Houston and Baytown next to the Port of Houston that gave most people their jobs at the chemical plants and refineries of the shipping channel.

But while Berneathy moved on as Angleton’s offensive coordinator, where his 2017 team set a school record with 716 points, and then a four-year, 33-10 run as Pasadena Dobie’s head coach, La Porte’s program started slipping. The Bulldogs hadn’t made it past the first round of the playoffs since 2016. When Berneathy returned as La Porte’s head coach in 2022, he became the third head coach in three seasons. 

“This is the place (where) I started my coaching adventure 18 years ago, and I wanted to see it back to where it was,” Berneathy said.

He knew that the La Porte community would support its football team. The community confirmed that when the bond that included a new stadium passed by nearly 80%. First, Berneathy had to develop a winner for them.

Step 1 was developing toughness in the Wing-T by implementing a five-day weight training schedule during the season. Berneathy also had a firmer grasp on the offense after learning under former Angleton head coach Ryan Roark. 

La Porte improved from 5-5 to 8-3 in Berneathy’s second year, but his Bulldogs met adversity with a 0-3 start in his third season. After one-score losses to 6A Deer Park and Humble Kingwood, Berneathy ironically realized his team was set up for success in a close defeat to reigning state champion Port Neches-Groves despite being without five defensive starters.

“That was really the game that I saw we were going to be okay,” Bernathy said. “Our kids still battled, regardless of the situation. They could’ve gone into that game like, ‘Man, we ain’t got our dudes.’ But they went in there and fought.”

They fought at a disadvantage without making an excuse in that PN-G game, just as they did the entire season without a stadium. The bye week allowed La Porte to get healthy and pull up star running back Sean Simon from the freshman team to pair with dynamic seniors Ricky Sandolph and Tyresse Barnes. Behind that three-headed monster, the Bulldogs sprinted to the fourth round of the playoffs after upsetting Barbers Hill and A&M Consolidated.

La Porte’s stadium should debut in 2025, but the 2023 and 2024 teams set the foundation for Berneathy’s tenure based on how they handled seasons without it. 

“I’m proud of these last two teams and everything that they did, regardless of the situation,” Berneathy said. “They never used it as an excuse. They never used it as a crutch. They just kept showing up to get better. We’re excited about getting to play at home next year.”