How many people fit inside a stadium built for a high school of 399 students? This season brought that question back to Willis: on September 4, Berton A. Yates Stadium hosted the Wildkats after their 38-0 season-opening win, while serving a high school with nearly seven times the enrollment it had when the bleachers went up in 1974.
Friday, September 4 was Red/White/Blue Night at Yates, the Wildkats' first true home game of the 2026 varsity season against Klein Collins. The matchup and the stadium offer a snapshot of Willis football this fall.
What happened at Magnolia is why the September 4 game mattered
According to Sportcast Media, Willis opened its varsity season on the road at Magnolia's Bulldog Stadium on August 28 and left with a 38-0 win. Magnolia wasn't a soft target either. The Bulldogs went 9-2 last year and shared the District 15-6A title with Klein Collins, the team Willis hosted on September 4. Magnolia head coach Craig Martin had scheduled Willis on purpose, telling reporters afterward that his team needed the film and the lesson: "It's all a learning process."
The program is still riding the momentum of a trip to the UIL Region II-6A Division II final last winter, under new head coach Trent Miller, who came over from Spring ISD.
Those details put the September 4 game at Yates in the context of the program's recent success and a stadium built for a much smaller school.
A stadium built for a school seven times smaller
Yates Stadium went up in 1974, when Willis High School enrolled 399 students. Today the school enrolls roughly 2,790, and that number is the entire reason the district has spent the last four years trying, and failing, to replace the stadium.
Willis ISD has put a new stadium in front of voters three separate times since 2022, and three separate times the stadium proposition has failed:
- In 2022, voters approved only the academic portion of a $225 million bond and rejected the athletics package that included the stadium.
- In May 2024, voters approved a $102.7 million proposition for a high school expansion and transportation center, but rejected a companion measure for a new $68.8 million, 8,500-seat athletic complex.
- In November 2024, voters rejected a scaled-back $115.4 million package that again included the stadium, this time along with a new aquatic center and student activity center.
Turnout in that May 2024 election was thin, about 4,200 residents, or roughly 12 percent of registered voters in the district. A Rice University professor who studies school bond elections told the Houston Chronicle that voters tend to back stadiums when the economy feels strong, and this vote landed during a stretch when it didn't. Had it passed, the new stadium would have ranked among the most expensive in Texas high school football, behind only Cy-Fair's $80 million FCU Stadium and Katy ISD's $70.3 million Legacy Stadium.
So for now, and for the foreseeable future, Yates is what Willis has. A program that just posted a 38-point shutout and produced Gatorade's 2023-24 National Football Player of the Year, DJ Lagway (now at Baylor after his time with the Florida Gators), is still playing its home games in a facility sized for a much smaller town.
What to know about attending a game at Yates
For future games at Yates, it helps to know the district's entry and ticket procedures.
Willis ISD instituted a clear bag policy at all sporting events, along with metal detectors at every entry gate. Clear backpacks, totes, and purses of any size are fine, including ones with colored seams or zippers, but balloons, firearms, knives, and live animal mascots are not permitted inside. Tickets are cashless and sold through HUDL Tickets, so check the platform for ticket information.
If parking or timing doesn't work out, Willis ISD streams many of its athletic events, including football, through HUDL TV, which means you don't have to choose between missing the game entirely and fighting for a spot in a lot that hasn't grown since the stadium it serves.
Later this fall, the calendar also has the Willis Homecoming Parade routed through Yates Stadium, a separate draw for residents who aren't necessarily tracking wins and losses but do know a parade route when they see one forming near Wildkat Drive.
The attention this season is drawing beyond Willis
There's a reason Friday nights carry extra weight for a program like this one right now. College coaches use Friday nights during the season specifically to scout, since it's the one night high school football is guaranteed to be the only game in town. A former Willis assistant coach, current University of Houston head coach Willie Fritz, said as much earlier this year when he argued that Friday nights should stay reserved for high schools precisely because of how many programs use them for recruiting visits.
Willis has also picked up a rival with a long memory. The Woodlands Highlanders have lost to Willis in each of the last two seasons and, according to Click2Houston, have had Willis "circled on the calendar" ever since. That game isn't this week, but it's on the radar for Willis fans who like to plan their fall around which Fridays will be the loudest.
What actually changes for a Willis resident this fall
The short version is this: Willis opened the 2026 season with a 38-0 win, the coaching staff is new, and the stadium hosting the team is more than fifty years old and was built for a much smaller school.
For future games at Yates, get there early. If you'd rather watch from home, HUDL TV is a real option, not a consolation prize.
Willis keeps changing, one season, one bond election, one Friday night at a time, and that's part of what makes it worth paying attention to even if you're not the one on the field. If you're curious about what else is shifting in this corner of Montgomery County, from new businesses to the neighborhoods filling in around Lake Conroe, the team at Aqua Terra Real Estate keeps a close eye on the details that make Willis feel like Willis.
