Shoemaker High School Football Coach Gets Milestone Victory

The Shoemaker Grey Wolves defeated their crosstown, intra-KISD, and District 4-5A rival Ellison Eagles 54 to 6 Friday at Joseph L. Searles, II Stadium.

The Grey Wolves’ win moved Head Coach Toby Foreman ahead of the school’s inaugural coach Ken Gray for most football wins in Shoemaker history.

Five games into his seventh season with Shoemaker, Foreman has 30 wins and 37 losses.

Gray began with the team when Shoemaker opened as a four-year high school in 2000 and coached for 11 years, retiring in 2011 with 29 wins and 81 losses.

Channon Hall coached the team the next five years, taking the Grey Wolves to the playoffs and to its first playoff win, earning 23 wins and 29 losses. Next, Johnnie Fair coached just one season, in 2016, when the Wolves went winless.

Inheriting an 0-10 team from the year before, Foreman built a new attitude where players and coaches expect to win every game.

At the end of Friday’s game, the Shoemaker coach said he was honored to reach the milestone.

“From where we were to where we are now that’s a huge change in culture,” said Foreman. “That’s something that took all six-and-a-half years to get to that point. I’m extremely proud of the guys from 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, and current 2023.”

“I do believe if you stick with it and continue to do what you believe is right then good things will happen. This group continues to get better each class each year. We started a tradition and that’s what the expectation is now is to be successful week in and week out.”

“We don’t expect to lose any games,” he said. “We may not win them all, but we expect to win every game and that’s what you have to expect.” 

In 2017, Foreman’s first Shoemaker team went 0-11. The next year, the Grey Wolves improved to 2-8, then 7-4, 8-3, 3-6, and last year’s team finished 8-3.