First top-five Breazeale Cup finish makes growing Rouse a program on the rise

LEANDER — The names at the top of the 2024 Breazeale Cup final standings have a consistency to them, but one program might be crashing what is a pretty exclusive club.

Rouse, which has had a respectable athletic department since the school opened in 2007, enjoyed a banner 2023-24 school year, registering its first top-five finish in the Breazeale Cup, the American-Statesman's annual ranking of more than five dozen Central Texas high school sports programs based on their teams' success.

Rouse scored points in an impressive 13 sports to take the fourth spot on the list. The Raiders' baseball and girls soccer teams reached the UIL state tournament, the volleyball team made a run to the regional finals, and seven teams won district titles in the highly competitive District 25-5A. Rouse athletes were all over the Statesman's All-Central Texas teams , and baseball player Oscar Salazar and volleyball player Savannah Skopal made the Statesman's list of Central Texas' top 50 athletes .

Rouse was 16th in the 2022 Breazeale Cup and eighth last year.

In all, 64 area schools' athletic programs were judged. Georgetown, which produced points in an area-best 17 sports, successfully defended its 2023 Breazeale Cup with perhaps an even better year in 2023-24. District 26-6A rivals Westlake and Lake Travis finished behind the Eagles, and Vandegrift rounded out the top five.

Rouse football coach and athletic coordinator Josh Mann, who has been at the school since it opened, said a focus on things other than winning led to the Raiders’ success this year.

“We focus on the support of the kids,” Mann said. “If I focused on (the school’s finish in the Breazeale Cup), we certainly wouldn’t have done as well. … Watching the relationships that our coaches and kids and community have is the win.”

Starting the program on the right foot

This history of Rouse is an interesting one and something that factored into its pinnacle success.

More: Trip to UIL state baseball tournament a culmination of talent, hard work for Rouse seniors

When the school opened, Mann said, he put a focus on starting traditions and standards in the athletic department and encouraging athletes to play more than one sport. And perhaps more important, whenever a program achieved a goal — such as making the playoffs, winning a district title or reaching the regional tournament — recognizing that accomplishment schoolwide and communitywide.

“Anytime we hit one of those marks we set in team sports, we celebrated like we won the Super Bowl,” he said.

A coaching staff that has had relatively little turnover compared with peer schools through the years has helped achieve and build a better sense of community — something that also plays into what Rouse has built.

“We’ve had six coaches here since the school opened, and if a coach comes here they usually stay for about eight to nine years, on average,” Mann said. “The consistency of the staff and the culture they’ve helped build were reasons we were able to have the success we did.”

Overcoming the challenges of growth

One can argue Rouse's athletic department has started twice.

When fellow Leander Independent School District member Glenn opened in 2016, Rouse lost one-third of its students, something Mann described as “a hard reset across every one of our programs.”

But most of the coaches remained — something Mann said is a positive effect still felt to this day — as did the culture and community pride at the school. And since the pandemic, Rouse has hit its stride.

“We’ve had a run the past four or five years that has been unreal across the board,” Mann said. “And it’s not an athletic thing; it’s a campus thing. There’s a unique love that our campus has for each other and our programs that makes it a really special place.”

Past Breazeale Cup winners

2022-23: Georgetown

2021-22: Lake Travis

2020-21: Lake Travis

2019-20: Cedar Park

2018-19: Liberty Hill

2017-18: Liberty Hill

2016-17: Liberty Hill

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: First top-five Breazeale Cup finish makes growing Rouse a program on the rise