For 23 years, the Dacus family called Navasota “Home”. For 16 of those years, Navasota ISD was the only home that Casey Dacus knew. At the age of two years old, Casey moved to Navasota, Texas, when his father, Mike Dacus, became an assistant coach at Navasota High School. His entire K-12 educational experience occurred in Navasota ISD schools graduating from Navasota High School in 1994. While at Navasota High School, Casey lettered in football, basketball, baseball, and track. He was an all-district football, basketball, and baseball player, an all-region basketball and baseball player, as well as receiving all-state honors as a baseball player to go along with his academic all-state honors.
After his high school athletic career, Casey received a scholarship to play baseball at Wharton County Junior College where he red-shirted his first year and played one year. While there, he made the Dean’s List and academic all-conference honors. After two years at Wharton, he transferred to Abilene Christian University to play his last three years of baseball. At ACU, he again made the Dean’s list and was academic all-conference.
Abilene Christian University is where he met his future wife, Jody. The two grew up only 40 minutes apart from one another since Jody is from Huntsville, but did not meet until they were at ACU. The two were married in 2001 and have 3 children – Camden (13), Jadyn (11), and Collin (7).
Upon graduation from ACU, Dacus went to Baylor University and obtained a Masters Degree in Sport Management. In addition to the degree, one of the requirements to complete the program was an internship. Casey was fortunate enough to land one with the Houston Texans football team and organization. After the internship was over, he was hired as an employee in the scouting department until the Texans began their inaugural season in 2002. While working for the Texans, his love for football and coaching continued to grow. Following his stint with the Texans, Casey began his coaching career in the high school ranks.
Casey and Jody moved to Stephenville in 2002 coaching there for one year before moving to Early, Texas. At Early, Coach Dacus was the Offensive Coordinator, Head Basketball Coach, and Head Golf Coach. Coach Dacus achieved the playoffs in all sports while there. In their last three seasons at Early High School, Coach Dacus was a part of a staff that was 32-9 with two trips to the State Semi-Final games.
In 2008, the Dacus family moved to Abilene to join the staff at Abilene Cooper High School as Offensive Coordinator and QB coach. There, they had a record of 28-11 with three Regional Final appearances setting numerous school records for offense. Under Coach Dacus’ tutelage, the ACHS quarterbacks broke several season and career records along the way.
In 2011, the family moved to Graham, Texas, where they have lived for the past seven years. Coach Dacus joined the Graham High School staff as the Offensive Coordinator and QB Coach. With the help of Coach Dacus, the Graham Steers have been to the State Semi-Finals in 4 out of the 7 years. In those four years, the Steers had a record of 53 wins and only 7 losses. This past season, the team totaled 7094 yards of offense and put up a total of 756 points with an average of 475 yards and 50.4 points per game.
At a special called Board meeting on Tuesday night, the Navasota ISD School Board officially hired Coach Dacus who is slated to begin next Monday, March 5th, 2018, as his first official day on the job. Coach Dacus said that he and his family are excited to be coming home to Navasota and that he is “all in” to be a part of Rattler Nation once again!
Stu Musick, Ed.D.
Superintendent of Schools