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Driven. Goal-oriented. Direct.
Those are some of the words Rice Raider athletes use to describe defensive coordinator Donovan King.
King is no stranger to Raider Nation. A 2005 Rice High School graduate, King was a standout football and track athlete who played under coach Brad Dumont. During his time as a Raider, King was named 3A Defensive Player of the Year, firstteam All-State and unanimous District 20-3A Player of the Year.
He was also a member of three straight District 203A championship teams.
King competed in shot put and discus in track, earning all-district honors twice and placing third at the 2004 Class 3A state meet.
Now, more than 20 years after wearing the blue and silver as an athlete, King is back on the Raider sidelines — this time as a coach.
A RAIDER FROM THE BEGINNING
King became interested in sports around age five or six, but said his grandmother, Willie Bea King, made sure he understood there was more to his future than athletics.
“From the time I was able to walk, she has been my person,” King said. “She was relentless in her pursuit of me getting my education and excelling in the classroom. Football was never the end game for her. (Education) was a vehicle to a better future.”
King also grew up watching his uncles Greg King, Raymond Perkins and Randy Perkins play football at Rice High School. He knew early on that he wanted to wear the blue and silver himself.
His success in high school earned him a scholarship to Texas State University in San Marcos, where he continued his football career.
King graduated from Texas State with a bachelor’s degree in psychology in 2009. He continued his education at Texas Tech University, earning a master’s degree in rehabilitation counseling in May 2014.
FROM PLAYER TO COACH
King began his coaching career in 2013, a move he said felt natural after his years as a player.
“It always felt like the natural transition for me once I was done playing,” King said. “I love the game. It has provided me with so many opportunities. Mentoring young men and women and helping them to find their path in life is a meaningful profession.”
King began his career in East Bernard, where he coached from 2013-16. His career later took him to Fort Bend Ridge Point, New Diana, Coldspring, Hempstead, Fort Bend Dulles and Fort Bend Clements before he accepted a position at Rice this school year.
Coming home, he said, was always part of the plan.
“I’ve always wanted to come back and coach at home. The timing was just never right,” King said. “I’ve spent my entire professional life pouring into other people’s children and communities, and I felt it was time to put that energy and intentionality back into my own community.”
For King, coaching also gives him an opportunity to provide young athletes with the kind of mentorship he received growing up.
“It has always been the path God put me here to walk,” he said. “I love the game, the camaraderie and the lessons that it teaches you about being a man.”
Growing up in a single- parent household, King said many of the male role models in his life were coaches. One who made a lasting impression was Will Compton, who arrived at Rice around King’s junior year.
“I really gravitated toward him,” King said. “He poured into my life in an immense way, and I’ve always wanted to pay that gift forward.”
COMING HOME
Returning to Rice after more than two decades has also given King a chance to see how the school and its students have changed.
One of the biggest differences, he said, is that students from the district’s communities now attend middle school together before reaching Rice High School.
“There was always that feeling-out process when the communities all came together once we all got to high school,” King said. “Now that they are all here, it tightens up the sense of community.”
King also sees differences between young people today and those of his generation, particularly in maturity and responsibility.
“As a parent, your goal is to give your children a better life than the one that you lived,” King said. “I think in doing so, we remove some of the hardships and struggles that we experienced that made us the men and women we are today.”
He admits he sees the same thing in his own family.
“I’m guilty of it as well,” King said. “My 10-year-old daughter has everything she could possibly want for, but there are days I have to bring her back to reality that nothing in life will just be given to you.”
As a student-athlete himself, King said earning a college scholarship was his primary goal because he knew his family did not have the resources to send him to college.
“Sports, winning in particular, was my singular focus,” he said. “I knew that getting a scholarship was the only way to have a better life.”
Pouring back into Raider Nation King said he doesn’t need anything elaborate to define what he hopes to accomplish now that he is back at Rice.
“I plan on just doing my job, to be honest,” he said. “I came here to pour into our youth. Sports is just the vehicle in which I’m able to do it.”
Anyone who has watched King on the sidelines knows that approach comes with plenty of energy.
“Those who have seen me roaming the sidelines on Friday nights know that I’m loud and animated,” King said. “That’s simply a manifestation of my passion for the game and a desire to see young men in the community experience the level of success I was able to.”
For King, returning to Rice gives him the opportunity to show today’s Raiders what may be possible beyond their hometown.
“I’m a walking, breathing example that a successful life outside of Colorado County is possible if you want it,” King said. “The question they have to decide is how badly do they want it.”
