WHATABURGER / ETBLITZ PERSONALITY PROFILE | Laycen & Hector Peralez, Kilgore High School
EDITOR’S NOTE: For about 20 weeks, ETBlitz.com presented the Whataburger / ETBlitz.com Players of the Week to male and female athletes in our coverage area. But competition stopped when high school and Kilgore College took their annual summer break. We thought the public might enjoy a glimpse at some of the personalities in our area high schools and at KC, hence our new feature, the Whataburger / ETBlitz Personality Profile. Our first in the series: Kilgore High School boys soccer and boys cross country coach Hector Peralez, and Laycen Peralez, the director of the KHS Hi-Steppers. Please check out the accompanying bios that are linked with the interview (Hector’s is here: Personality Profile bio: HECTOR PERALEZ (etblitz.com) Laycen’s is here: Personality Profile Bio: LAYCEN PERALEZ (etblitz.com)), and remember when it’s time for lunch (or breakfast, or dinner!), it’s time for Whataburger!
When any member of the Kilgore High School Hi-Steppers, of the school’s boys cross country team or of the boys soccer team wonders if their director or head coach can sympathize with them, or knows what it’s like to walk in their shoes…
…wonder no more.
Kilgore High School has a bit of a dream team, if you will, with Hi-Stepper Director Laycen Peralez and husband Hector Peralez, who doubles as both the Bulldogs’ head boys soccer coach and boys cross country coach. They were married last summer.
And they absolutely know what it’s like to walk the path of the current students, because they were in that path – and not all that long ago!
Laycen was a Hi-Stepper at KHS about 10 years ago, journeying to Texas State University to complete her education and then to Tyler Legacy as an assistant director and to Pine Tree as a director before returning home, if you will, to lead at Kilgore.
And Hector?
Well, let’s just say he never planned it this way.
“I’d always been immersed in sports, and it’s just interesting how it turned out, that I would be a coach,” he said, with a laugh. “I never did, never thought I’d be a coach. Never thought about being at Kilgore. I wanted to go into something in the medical field. I was ready to get out. I talked to a couple of coaches. Coach Aaron Erickson, soccer coach, talked to him. He kind of pulled me back in. I always tell my family, and I always tell Laycen, ‘We make plans, and God laughs.’ But I’m happy. I’m very happy.”
Planned or not, after a relationship that dates back to high school, they are here, and success has come early.
Laycen already sounds like a seasoned director, having already started planning out the Hi-Steppers’ Spring Show for THIS COMING YEAR immediately after LAST YEAR’S was completed, and Hector, alongside assistant coach Mason McCormack and one of the most talented group of Kilgore Bulldogs’ soccer standouts in a long time (and that’s saying something), made it all the way to the University Interscholastic League Class 4A State Soccer Tournament – oh, yeah, AFTER he coached Kilgore cross country standout Luciano Brizuela to the state meet in Round Rock in November.
Both Laycen and Hector will have huge roles in Kilgore High School’s fall sports scene. Laycen, of course, along with assistant director Christie Carter, will put together the Hi-Steppers’ halftime show that Ragin’ Red fans will see each Friday, not to mention pep rallies, coordinate public appearances and also has the dance co-ed class, and then prepare for the huge Spring Show, normally in April each year, to culminate the school year.
In the immediate, Hector will have cross country not long after the beginning of the school year, then in December, begin the transition to soccer, where he and the Bulldogs will try to defend their 16th consecutive district championship (unreal), the regional championship and maybe – maybe – get those guys back to a state tournament with a different outcome. Kilgore lost to Boerne in the state semifinals.
More on that later.
Let’s focus on the Hi-Steppers first.
So, we asked Laycen what the Hi-Steppers are doing now, or what they’ve done to help themselves so far in the latter stages of the school year that just ended, and this summer, to get ready for the fall.
“We actually did line camp … during the last week of school,” she said. “We bring in Encore and they taught them choreography. They’re away for summer. During summer they have to have, of course, summer dance hours, and strength and conditioning hours, just so they can maintain their stamina and endurance to make it through football season.
“They’ll come back to us on August 5 for two-a-days, and really, once we start in August, there’s no offseason. We’ll be on until, really, the end of April, first week of May.”
There really is little to no break as a Hi-Stepper. Once the school year starts, it’s go-go-go.
“It’s tough for sure, just because they really never stop,” she said. “It’s not like they go through football season and then get two months off. Even during football season, we start working on Christmas stuff in about October, and then they start learning Spring Show material in December, maybe November, December. So, we’re just constantly overlapping. Usually, we’re working three to five dances at a time.”
Laycen and Carter will count on these officers to step up this year. There are three returners, Captain Gracelyn Nash (senior), Lt. Bailey Alford (senior), Lt. Kyleigh Lewis (senior), and then three new officers: First Lt. Adalyn Chitwood (junior), Lt. Kyra Spyhalski (junior), and Lt. Kayla Black (junior).
How the heck do the Hi-Steppers always look so prepared, never rattled, like they’re ready for anything?
Well, that’s because they never get rattled, they’re always prepared, and ready for anything.
“Just generally, we work about four months ahead,” Laycen explained. “Spring show stuff, I start that as soon as I wrap up a Spring Show. Christie (Carter) and I have ideas going for what that looks like for next year… facilities, securing the Belcher (Center), what our theme is, how do we bring people in. We are blessed that we have really talented drill team people here. But we bring in a lot of people, too, because we want our kids to have exposure, and to be able to go dance at the next level, if that’s what they want to do. So they have to be trained and be able to dance in a lot of different genres, and securing those people to make the drive to East Texas – it takes a lot of planning.”
Having been a Kilgore Hi-Stepper herself, Laycen knows the pressure that comes with being in the program, period, as director, assistant director, officer or one of the Hi-Steppers.
And having the experience that she’s had since college has been invaluable, she said.
“At least this was not my first head director’s job,” she said. “At Pine Tree, I was there for three years as the head, and I didn’t have an assistant. It was like everything fell on me, and getting prepared. It just makes you mindful, and keeps you on your toes. Coming into this job it was helpful, and keeps you on your toes – and coming into this job it helped, just having that experience.
“Christie being here is really helpful, too. That transition happened really seamlessly and was super easy, I would say. Our girls are great, they’re incredible. And the reason the program runs the way it does is because they give 100 percent all the time. And I think that’s why the standard hasn’t changed, even with directors changing and kids changing. They’ve seen the Hi-Steppers since they were little, and they know what the expectations are, and they don’t want to be the ones to not deliver. I just think there’s so many people that help make the program what it is. It really is a lot of fun, for sure.”
So what is it like to be a Hi-Stepper day-in, and day-out, during football season?
Here’s a bit of a look. And we mean a little bit of a look.
“During football season, I typically have them from 2 until 4:30, and two of those days, we’d be out at the field, and that’s where we do a lot of staging and spacing and just making sure they know yard lines and things like that,” she said. “And then the other two days, of course, we’re in our room – that’s just practice, like polish, making sure we look good, everyone doing things the same. If we’re in week one or two, they’ve had that halftime ready to go, I would say, at least three weeks. We’re probably already working on football game four or five.”
Ready for the pressure? Here it comes.
“We audition for every halftime,” Laycen explained. “And so the girls are in their spots. Once they audition, we set those formations, and then we get going, like polishing it, perfecting, just making sure it’s the caliber it needs to be for Friday nights. And then on top of halftimes, of course, we get our pep rallies together, too.”
Pep rallies are held on the Fridays of home games.
Now, when football season starts drawing to a close, different challenges arise: Christmas parades, increase of public appearances, the Derrick Lighting, participation in the Kilgore College Rangerettes’ Christmas show, and…
“We try to start learning choreography (for Spring Show) at least at the beginning of December,” she said. “If dates don’t work out for certain choreographers to come in, then we’ll push those up. I have one of our people we’re trying to coordinate with to come down, and she may have to start in October for Spring Show. …People don’t understand how fast-paced we have to move. They see Friday nights, and say, ‘Oh, that’s awesome,’ … on top of just performing and getting pep rallies together, two performances in a week if it’s a home game. Then we have to start working on the next two weeks at the same time.”
Ever see the Hi-Steppers greeting children at Chandler Elementary, Primary or the other campuses? Laycen knows Hi-Steppers in the public eye are always an example.
“There are morning drop-offs, and getting the kids out in the community is important; the Derrick Lighting, Octoberfest, with our co-ed Class,” she said. “Most of our dance co-ed kids are Hi-Steppers, and so that’s just another thing that they have. So they mentally have to be super strong. And I think that’s one of the big adjustments coming from middle school into high school is when you’re younger, you’re used to getting to work on one dance for three or four weeks before you perform it, and then you get another three or four weeks. But that’s just not our reality at all. It takes time to adjust. But I think our returning members really do a great job of encouraging those kids to be able to step up and perform at the Hi-Stepper level.”
The Hi-Steppers don’t stop when Laycen and Christie Carter aren’t standing over them. The work continues in other dance classes, gymnastics, and – oh, yeah – their classroom work. They’re students first.
“On top of Hi-Steppers, the girls are training outside in order to do the things that we do in Hi-Steppers, and I think that’s why the level is so high is because they truly never stop. They’re hungry to be better. I think that’s always the goal. They’re very smart, top of the class, very involved – I think we’re just really fortunate to have kids like that in our program. They’re just great role models, people that you would want your kids to follow for sure.”
As for Hector, he and the soccer team, and Brizuela, set the bar high in his first year as a head coach.
After coaching Brizuela up and to a spot in the UIL Class 4A State Cross Country Meet at Old Settlers Park at Round Rock last November, Hector moved from the assistant coach’s seat in boys soccer over to the driver’s seat, replacing longtime coach Tom Wait, one of his mentors.
And from there, it was full-gas, 180 miles per hour. The Bulldogs ran through the season with a 25-3-2 overall record; won the district championship (again) with just one loss; ran through the playoffs and knocked off top-ranked Jacksonville along the way; won the regional championship at CHRISTUS Trinity Mother Frances Rose Stadium, the program’s first in seven years since Kilgore won the state championship in 2017; and then lost in the state semifinals at Georgetown’s Birkelbach Stadium.
It was a whirlwind. And in spite of the way it ended, it was an unbelievable ride.
“I’ve tried to reflect on it,” Hector said. It’s just a great feeling. When it was all happening, it was pretty numbing. I was doing my best just to manage the team and to make sure they were mentally prepared, physically prepared – I was trying to give us any advantage that I could give us on the scope of just soccer, even before the third round, just the little things, you know? It felt great.
“I never thought about it or see it as anything I did, per se. The boys just put a lot of hard work in it, and I tried to keep them just ready, just ready to go. They gave really good effort. It was a really great feeling, definitely. I’ve been reflecting on it a little bit here and there, and I had fun, really – I had so much fun.”
We asked the coach if there was one win, or more than one, where he thought that the team was coming together, that was their signature win.
“It was the Jacksonville win,” Hector said, of the Bulldogs’ 1-0 third-round win over the Indians in Henderson. Jacksonville had been ranked No. 1 in the state coming in. “They were really good. I had been watching them, gosh, who knows how long? Probably since scrimmage time. Them, and Palestine. I hate to say it, nothing against any of the other teams that we play, but I know in the third round that we’re going to run into that district, the first place of that district. And I knew it was going to be Palestine or Jacksonville. And as it got closer, we saw we were going to play Jacksonville, and they are very, very good.
“I have so much respect for their coach and that program. That team is really good. We just knocked them out and they probably deserved to go another few rounds. Someone had to lose that night.”
One of the biggest factors in Kilgore’s victory, Hector noted, might have simply been the Bulldogs’ familiarity with playing in Henderson, where Kilgore’s kids had played on so many occasions.
“I really wanted Henderson really, really badly, kind of one of those competitive edges,” he said. “We’re familiar with Henderson, these kids from freshmen to senior year play there like six times, and the seniors their seventh time to play there. I wanted us to feel comfortable, (rather than) wide-eyed somewhere else that they’d never been.”
As for why Kilgore is able to remain a power on the state soccer stage year-in and year-out, Peralez attributed that to the Kilgore community’s love for the sport – and their willingness to keep their kids’ participation level in it so strong.
“That goes back to the community,” he said. “Since our first appearance in 2011, the community is invested in themselves and in soccer. The community just loves soccer. They have their kids playing since they’re like six or seven. They always have ‘em playing. That foundation – a lot of credit goes to the community. They just keep that high standard. And it’s my job to keep that standard, manage the team, push them to new levels and go from there. Yes, we have a good base.”
As far as the fall, and preparing for the upcoming cross country season, Hector said he’d like to duplicate the building-block-like relationship workshop that running together became prior to last season.
“Hanging out, running together – we all ran,” he said. “It builds chemistry. They became best friends. There was no classism – there wasn’t any cliques. We were all one big family. We were all together since the fall. Running’s not fun. That’s just the honest truth. But with company, it makes it less miserable.”
We asked Hector what is the toughest thing about running cross country: is it the early hours that the meets typically start, the muddy days, the practices…?
“The grueling miles,” he answered. “Nobody wants to run three miles. Now, the kids that are good, they want to do it, it’s really important, but nobody really wants to do it just for fun. It’s going to be in the Olympics. And it’s important. But nobody wants to do it for fun. It’s a little bit easier to be passionate about soccer. Those are really hard, mentally grueling sports, track and cross country. A lot of times, you’re running against a lot of people and only a handful get awards.
“For some people, getting a PR (personal record) is great, but for some, they can PR, and get eighth, and they’re like, ‘That was not fun.’”
Like Laycen and the Hi-Steppers, and most athletes, Hector is counting on Kilgore’s cross country runners to police themselves somewhat and to run, stay in shape over the summer and be ready.
“For cross country, the bulk of our team is (also) soccer kids,” he said. “They’re doing workouts right now, over the summer. …The boys run on their own, and then we start our true practices.”
After all of his experiences in football, soccer, and cross country at the state level, Hector has observed this much.
“Texas athletics is so competitive,” he said. “I’ve been fortunate enough to go to the state cross country meet with Luciano, and then to state soccer. And I see these kids there. And I’m like, ‘Oh my gosh.’ They’re putting in these insane times. They’re good-looking athletes. And on social media, other people’s times, other people’s players, and I’m like, ‘those kids wouldn’t stand a chance (in Texas).’ It’s so competitive. You can’t just lay around. Our kids know that. Luciano knows that. With him, I just don’t over-coach him. Now, he loves running. It’s kind of a big-heart thing.”
And if anyone ever expects Hector to rest on his laurels, maybe after Kilgore reached the state tournament?
Not a chance.
“I hold the soccer program to a really high standard,” he said. “No one is more critical than me. And one of the first things I told the boys – it’s kind of cliché, because everybody wants to go to state, wants to go to state, wants to go to state – we can talk about wanting to go to state all we want. But we have to win a regional championship first. And we haven’t done that in seven years.
“I told them we’re falling behind Palestine. Palestine is winning all of these accolades and they’re becoming the face of East Texas. I told them if you want to change that, then we need to start making runs, and we need to start now.”
