Blake Ware Returns to his Roots as Head Coach at MacArthur High School

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Blake Ware, a graduate of MacArthur High School, has been named the school’s new head football coach and campus athletic coordinator.

Blake Ware is coming home.

The MacArthur High School graduate was recently named head football coach and athletic coordinator at the school, where he graduated in 1989.

Ware played tight end for former MacArthur head coach Bob Alpert. As a sophomore and junior, Ware and his teammates reached the quarterfinals.

After graduating from Texas Southern University with a history degree, Ware went to work in the restaurant business, where he met his wife Trina, a graduate of Eisenhower High School. He began coaching his brother’s little league football teams, where the coaching bug bit him.

“I went and visited with coach Alpert and told him I wanted to become a coach,” Ware said. “He told me it would be tough, but it’s something I wanted to do. I love it (coaching).”

Twenty-eight years later, Ware still loves coaching and looks forward to making the Generals relevant again in football.

MacArthur’s roots run deep in the Ware family. His mother and father are both MacArthur grads, and he has 15 other relatives who went to school there.

Ware said he was thankful for the opportunity to return to his alma mater and looks forward to the challenge of turning the MacArthur football program around.

“I am,” when asked if he was excited about taking over the program he once played for. “We’re going to see if we can make a difference. This is a homecoming, for sure.”

Aldine ISD Executive Director of Athletics Dre Thompson said he was excited Ware is returning to the district where he was educated and competed in sports as a young man.

“When you look at where we are with MacArthur football and the plan it’s going to need for Big Red, Coach Ware was the right choice,” Thompson said. “He has the experience and the skill set to make it happen. Coach Ware is known in the coaching world as a program rebuilder. Not only does he have the reputation and the resume to rebuild programs, but he is also a MacArthur product. He is a graduate and former player at MacArthur High School. So, all the needed dots are connected to steer the program in the right direction. And it doesn’t hurt to have someone that adds a personal touch.”

Ware served for four years as the former head coach at Dayton High School. While at Dayton, he led the team to the playoffs after starting 0-10 in 202. The Broncos improved and finished 7-4 a year ago each year.

Ware remembers the days when MacArthur was a power in football in the 1980s and 1990s under Alpert’s leadership. They were a perennial playoff participant and, in 1993, reached the Class 5A Division II state title game, where they lost a 43-37 heartbreaker to Lewisville.

“If I have 15 to 18 years left in me, I want to take all that time to a place I love,” he said. “I want to see Mac return to where it used to be.”

Ware has already met his new players and believes he made a good first impression.

“I think they liked where I’m coming from,” he said. “I told them we want to raise the standard. We have a lot of work ahead of us. It’s going to take a lot of consistency and patience. This is a great opportunity with the new stadium opening. It will be great to be on that field again in Red and White.”

Ware said his offense will be based on the talent he has returning. In the past, he has run the Pro-I, which he learned from coach Alpert, and will also employ spread concepts. Defensively, the Generals will run an odd front.

While the Xs and Os will take care of themselves, Ware said he and his staff will focus on inspiring their new players from Day 1.

“In my experience, it all starts with hope,” Ware said. “It’s our job to inspire these kids. To teach them to lift others and have selfless hearts. If we give everybody hope, the train will get going. It’s not about me, it’s about us. Our job is to put the right people in the right seats on the bus and do what’s best for us.”

Make no mistake, though, Ware is committed to winning.

“I love winning, and we are going to do things the right way,” he said. “We’ll be asking our players to trust us. Wins are great, but what that kid is at 35 is what matters the most. Will he be a good father and a good co-worker? Don’t get me wrong, I want to win, but I believe I’m in the business of helping young men become better in their adult lives.”

He has also been head coach at St. Pius X High School since 2011-14. Ware has also served as offensive coordinator at New Caney High School (2014-2020), as head football coach at The Woodlands Christian Academy (2010-11), as head coach at Greenhill School in Addison, TX (2005-10), and served as offensive coordinator at St. Pius X from 1997-2005. In 1999, he was part of the St. Pius X staff that won the TAPS state championship. He also served one year on the St. Thomas High School football staff in 1996.

During his 28 years in coaching, Ware has been named a Touchdown Club of Houston Coach of the Year Finalist (2012), was one of 16 coaches selected from across the nation to coach in the Under Armour All-American Game (2013), and was named Liberty County Coach of the Year in 2022.

During his tenure as a head coach and offensive coordinator, Ware has produced 11 running backs that have rushed for 3,000 or more yards in a season, oversaw an offense in 2008 at St. Pius that was the national leader in passing yards per game for the regular season and in 2015, his offense ended the season ranked fourth among Class 5A teams in total offense and fifth in the state in scoring. He has produced four offenses (2016, 17, 18, and 19) that averaged more than 40 points per game, and in that span, all four of his quarterbacks were named Montgomery County Offensive MVPs for those respective seasons.

Ware and his wife Trina have three children: Timmy, Averie, who attends Sam Houston State University; and Alana, who is a senior at Dayton High School.