They are defending district champions. They sport a pair of Division 1-bound recruits. They have reeled off three straight seven-win seasons. The Lago Vista Vikings have proven they can field a team worthy of recognition.
Just nine years ago, they could hardly field a team.
In eight seasons under head coach Alan Haire, the Vikings have steadily progressed from district doormat into a strong contender. But the beginning of Viking football can be traced back to a dedicated community effort in the late ’90s to bring a team to one of the few public high schools in Texas that did not have one.
“At the time, there were two public schools in the state that didn’t have football, and Lago Vista was one of them,” said Jerry Sisemore, former NFL lineman and former Lago Vista school board president. “There was a younger group of parents that were concerned that their kids didn’t have the opportunity. It was not just football, but marching band and cheerleaders (too). It’s a proven fact that high school football adds a lot to the educational community.”
The board agreed to sanction football if the community could raise the necessary funds to support it, which Sisemore estimated were approximately $150,000.
Little by little, they raised the money. Boosters formed the Lago Vista Quarterback Club and held numerous auctions and fundraisers. The Lower Colorado River Authority agreed to provide free excavation, and volunteers installed the sprinkler system for free.
“There was a very dedicated group of people that got together and raised the money,” Sisemore said. “That was pretty amazing.”
The Vikings played as a flag football team in 1999 before fielding a varsity squad and joining the UIL in 2000 under former head coach Keith Willis.
“It’s very difficult to start a program at the varsity level,” Haire said. “Generally when a school starts a football program, you start at the middle school, and then those middle-schoolers go to JV and JV goes to varsity. They started just straight varsity.”
In two varsity seasons under Willis, the Vikings went 0-10 and 1-9, including an 83-20 loss to Comfort in 2001. The team finished the 2001 season with only 18 players on the varsity squad, no junior varsity and only one middle school team.
“We were lucky if we still had 11 bodies in the fourth quarter,” stadium clock operator Gayland Landfried said. “It was heartbreaking.”
Players played both offense and defense, and many were forced into entirely new positions, sometimes even midway through a game.
“They fielded whoever was playing at the time no matter what their classification was,” Haire said. “I specifically remember (coach Steve Elder) telling me stories of them moving running backs to offensive line during games or offensive linemen going to running back.”
When players would get dings, or aches or pains during the games, Haire said, there was no backup.
“They would have to move kids around to positions they had never played before,” he said. “That sets up opportunities to get hurt because you don’t know what you’re doing out there.”
After two seasons, Willis moved back to Waco, and Haire was hired to take over the program in May 2002. A former college quarterback at Sterling College in Kansas and a tight end and wide receiver at Tarleton State University, Haire had previously served as head coach and athletic director at Perrin-Whitt High School. He came to Lago Vista looking for the challenge of leading a young program as well as being closer to his hometown of Salado.
“I wanted to be in on the process to help build (the program),” he said. “It’s a challenge, and what better way to start to learn how to help kids than at the basic fundamental approach of being new.”
Haire made an immediate impact with the Vikings.
“The first year, we were 3-7. We had won more games in one year than the program had had in its history,” he said. “We just used those positives to hang onto.”
In sharp contrast to the previous year, that season the Vikings fielded a varsity squad, a JV and two middle school teams. The team began with 55 players at the beginning of the season and had 45, as opposed to 18, make it to the end.
Upon arriving at the school, one of Haire’s first priorities had been to recruit students already at the school to come out for the team to ensure they had enough players so each could play his best position.
“My first priority was just to walk up and down the hallways and let the kids know I’m going to care about them,” he said. “They’re getting a guy who is going to care about them as more than just a football player.”
Sisemore credits Haire with changing the mentality of the team and being able to get the most out of the players’ abilities.
“Coach Haire runs a committed program,” Sisemore said. “He asks the young people to buy into it and if they buy into it, good things will happen. They buy into it every day. It is a wonderful thing to watch. Everyone is encouraged to overachieve.”
The seasons since Haire’s first have been a seeming succession of milestones. The team had its first district win on Sept. 22, 2005—a 22-16 victory over Rogers. The Vikings finished the season 5-5 overall—the team’s first non-losing record for a full season.
“We had some good kids in there that really took athletics seriously,” Haire said. “I started to see the change then, and then it’s evolved over time to where it is today.”
In 2007, the Vikings went 7-3, clinching their first playoff berth with a 29-22 overtime win over Jarrell in the final week of the regular season. The Vikings went on to reach the second round of the playoffs.
The 2008 season marked Haire’s sixth year with the program and the first in which the senior class had been coached by Haire throughout middle and high school.
“I feel like they’re never your kids until a group of seventh graders are seniors,” Haire said. “You need to have those seventh graders come through the system so everybody behind them knows, ‘this is what we’re going to have to do if we’re going to be successful. This is the sacrifice we’re going to have to make to be a champion.’”
The past 12 months have held arguably the biggest milestones of all for the Vikings. The varsity again posted a 7-3 record, this time good enough for the District 25-2A championship.
“It was kind of euphoric to be here when you were a doormat,” he said. “There were 200 2A teams and at times you were ranked 198. We were one of the worst 2A teams in the state. And to see the program become champions, you just felt so excited for them, being able to experience being a champion, being on a championship team, knowing you’re going to advance to the playoffs and setting that up. That’s huge.”
This past summer, incoming seniors JeMarcus Johnson and Austin Terry committed to play for Baylor and Texas Christian universities, respectively, becoming the school’s first Division 1-bound players.
This year Lago Vista moves to a district reminiscent of its early UIL years, including familiar foes Blanco and Comfort, which the Vikings have never beaten. Another 83-20 shellacking seems unlikely, though, as the Vikings are far from the team they were last time they saw those opponents.
“Back then, we were just hoping to be competitive. Now, going in on Friday nights, we’re going to be competitive,” stadium announcer Doug Jumper said. “Back then, we didn’t talk about district championships. We were just trying to get settled. When we walk into the stadium on Friday nights, there is not an arrogance but a confidence that we will match up.”

—Max McCombs, Staff Intern