Interstate 10 is the fourth-longest highway in the United States. It spans 2,460 miles from Santa Monica, California, to Jacksonville, Florida.

As a 90s kid growing up in northwest Houston, Ajani Sanders thought I-10 only went from Katy to downtown Houston, 30 miles apart, or 1.22% of the actual highway. 

Sanders’ worldview as a young man at Houston Northbrook High School was small. In that world, street gangs were an after-school club. Drug dealing was a job. A lot of Sanders’ friends fell into that trap. But Sanders had football and, more importantly, a coach in Freddy Hernandez who told his players there was a life they couldn’t yet see on the other side of hard work.  

“He always told us that if we were doing the right thing, if we could be disciplined, that would take us further than anything football could do for us,” Sanders said.

So, while classmates sat on the corners, Sanders and his teammates sat at their desks so they could pass their classes and play football. Friends floated around town and played hooky. Sanders learned the importance of being on time to practice.

Under Hernandez’s guidance, football was the vehicle that took Sanders to a five-year career and college degree at Notre Dame, playing under Hall of Fame coach Lou Holtz. There, in a South Bend dorm room, a 20-year-old Sanders told his roommate he’d become a high school football coach in Texas, just like his mentor, Freddy Hernandez.

Hernandez finished his TXHSFB coaching career with a 43-58 record. He had one winning season in 10 years. But his career was a resounding success because it built men like Sanders. 

“My high school wasn’t the greatest,” Sanders said. “My senior year, we went 2-8. But it was the inspiration that our coaches gave us; they made us believe we were greater than what we were (record-wise).”

After his Notre Dame career ended, Sanders returned to Houston to coach high school football. This offseason, he took the head coaching job at Cleveland High School, which is currently on a 26-game losing streak. It’s the latest example of Sanders jumping into a job most others avoid because those are the jobs his high school coach had.

Sanders’ career record as a head coach is 8-52. He took over a Houston Scarborough program amid a 56-game losing streak in 2014. Sanders didn’t win a game that year, but he did get NFL Hall of Famer Jerry Rice to give the boys a preseason pep talk. His best finish was 3-7 over five more seasons split between Houston Westbury and Klein Forest.

Sanders has enjoyed on-field success in his coaching career. Two years ago, he was an assistant on Humble Summer Creek’s state finalist team. But everywhere he’s been, from AT&T Stadium to a seasons-long losing streak, the kids are giving him everything they have. He’ll be damned if he doesn’t as well. 

Last fall, when he was an assistant at Aldine Davis, he attended Cleveland’s final regular season game against Conroe. It was a scouting mission on Conroe, whom Davis would play in the first round of the playoffs. But Sanders ended up scouting his future school. 

He couldn’t help but notice how lively the atmosphere was for a team with a 0-9 record. And then, he heard the school’s fight song through the crowd noise. It was the Notre Dame fight song, transporting him back to that night in his dorm room when he pledged to become a high school football coach like Hernandez. 

Two weeks later, Cleveland’s head coach, Quirino Silva, retired, and the school district posted the job. Sanders heeded the call. 

“Everybody needs a coach,” Sanders said. “Everybody needs somebody to care about them. We had Coach Hernandez. Why can’t I be somebody’s Coach Hernandez?”