Donald Lawrence took over at Clear Lake

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There may have been some trepidation as Donald Lawrence got his feet wet at Clear Lake High School, but the Falcons recently hired first-year head football coach has shown nothing but a relentless approach to his new job.

Lawrence, in hiring Larry McRae, who guided Clear Lake to two playoff berths in seven years, will have to work at full strength.

Almost all high school football teams are wrapping up spring practice and preparing for a rigorous summer schedule.

For Lawrence, who is starting his first head coaching job, recruiting is one of several high-priority items.

“My biggest thing is to get guys on staff that the kids will want,” Lawrence said. These coaches need to be role models, speak well, teach well and do things the right way.

If I was a 16- or 17-year-old kid, I want our players to see their coach and say Hey, I want to be like that guy.

Lawrence comes to Clear Lake following his third stint at Langham Creek.

After playing football and graduating from Texas Lutheran University, the Jersey Village alumnus worked for two years at Brownsville Porter. Lawrence then coached at Langham Creek for two years, followed by a one-year stint as the offensive line coach at A&M Consolidated.

He returned to Langham Creek as offensive coordinator for a longer tenure.

We had seven years of unprecedented success at Langham, including two district championships, Lawrence said.

We played in the regional final against Cy Fair the year (2017) Cy Fair won the state championship. We went 11-2 that season and our only two losses were to Cy Fair.

After leaving Langham Creek in 2019, Lawrence joined the Pearland staff as assistant head coach and offensive coordinator under Ricky Tullos for three years.

Lawrence then returned to Langham Creek for the 2022 season before accepting the Clear Lake job last week.

He quickly adapted to the Bay Area.

It’s a wonderful community that has rallied around its high school, Lawrence said. It is an academically, artistically oriented community.

They want to produce high achievements. They expect good results, and they will work until they get them.

Lawrence made four coaching hires in his first week on the job, and he hopes to continue at a quick, but thorough pace as the days go by.

Not having spring training gives us an extra week to prepare in August, Lawrence said. With SSI (sports specific instruction), I think we can recover quickly from not having spring training.

Once Lawrence gets to know his players, hell knows how to move forward in terms of installing offensive and defensive schemes.

The No. 1 thing, year after year, is for coaches to adapt schemes to personnel, he said. Well put ourselves in the best position to be successful.

Ideally, well up-tempo shotgun. A wants to establish the gap run, then put players in the run-pass conflict, and after that look for vertical matchups.

Regardless of the schemes that come out, Lawrence addresses the burning question for Falcons fans.

The goal is to get to the playoffs right away, he said. In everything we do, we want to be first-class.

We want to perform to the best of our ability. I focus more on goals meaning, what did we do to be better today? Did we give our full effort? Things like that.

Lawrence was a key figure in helping produce multiple playoff teams at Langham Creek and Pearland, and obviously hopes to bring that attitude to Clear Lake.

You have to stop being bad before you can be good, he said, and you have to master situational football.

That’s the difference between winning and losing many close games.

Lawrence has already met with the players and most of the Clear Lake staff.

He said he could be full-time in Clear Lake as soon as this week but no later than May 30.

Building relationships is a very important part of this job, Lawrence said. I have enjoyed every step of this journey, and I look forward to moving forward every day.

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