Rodney Wooters / Woo Doo Photo
North Crowley defeated Southlake Carroll 47-10.
On Aug. 27, under the lights of the historic Cotton Bowl, Carroll players and fans stared in disbelief at a scoreboard that hardly seemed real: Jenks 27, Carroll 0. It was halftime of Lee Munn’s first game as Carroll’s head coach, and the night was unraveling fast.
Then Carroll struck. A touchdown. Then another. The Dragons kept coming. The deficit shrank, the crowd came alive, and a win that had felt impossible suddenly felt in reach.
By the final whistle, Carroll had erased all 27 points, stunning the Oklahoma powerhouse 34-33 and giving Munn his first win as a head coach. And in classic Munn fashion, he was quick to push the praise elsewhere — to his players, his staff, the fans, and anyone else who had a hand in the comeback.
Maybe that’s what happens when you’ve spent nearly a decade succeeding behind the scenes.
For years, Munn served as Carroll's defensive coordinator and associate head coach, helping build and sustain the standard that made the Dragons one of Texas' most successful programs.
That track record was built on a deep foundation of coaching experience. Munn played collegiate football and earned his degree in Exercise and Sport Science at Mary Hardin-Baylor, returning as a graduate assistant while earning his master's degree. From there, he cut his teeth in the Texas high school coaching ranks at Marble Falls and Austin Westlake, working under legendary head coach Todd Dodge.
The connection proved pivotal: when Todd’s son, Riley Dodge, accepted the head coaching job at Carroll in 2018, he brought Munn along to run the defense. Over the next eight seasons, with Munn overseeing a dominant defensive unit, Carroll compiled a staggering 108-10 record.
“It's not like we were looking to leave [Austin] Westlake,” Lee’s wife, Bridgett, says. “Sometimes these opportunities present themselves when you aren't expecting it.”
That unexpected opportunity turned into a near-decade-long run in Southlake, where Munn established himself as a fixture of one of the state's elite programs. He coached in state championship environments and even served as Carroll's interim head coach during a memorable 2021 state semifinal victory over Duncanville when Dodge tested positive for COVID-19.
But the State Line Showdown, as it was dubbed, was different. This time, Munn wasn't stepping in temporarily. He wasn't running one side of the ball. This was his team.
“Things were moving pretty fast at the beginning, but we all settled down,” Munn said. “On game days, I’m just trying to be as calm as possible. It doesn’t do any good to lose your mind on the kids – we’ve prepared as much as we can at that point. Now, we just go out and play.”
But it wasn't an ideal beginning. Jenks raced out to a 27-0 lead, and while Carroll's offense struggled early, the more glaring problem came on the side of the ball that has defined Munn's coaching career. The Dragons' defense surrendered four first half touchdowns, and at one point, the Trojans had outgained Carroll 291-17. For a first-time head coach whose calling card had always been defense, it was a particularly difficult way to begin.
Slowly, the defense began to look more like the unit Munn had spent years building. From midway through the second quarter on, Carroll’s defense settled in and gave the offense enough time to find its footing.
“I was really, really proud of the kids,” Munn said. “How they responded, it showed the type of character we have. Everyone bought into the message we were preaching when we were down 27-0.”
ONE PLAY AT A TIME
For Munn, the response said something about more than the final score.
It showed what happened when his players trusted the process and stayed composed despite a deficit that could have easily broken a team in its first game under a new head coach.
Munn’s calm attitude wouldn’t let that happen.
“If you were to ask the kids, on Mondays and Tuesdays I’m not very calm,” Munn said with a laugh. “But as the week goes on I try to be, for sure. By the time the game is being played, I feel like, as coaches, we need to be the opposite of how it’s going on the field. So with us being down early, I tried to just stay calm and preach getting a first down, getting a stop.”
The Dragons chipped away, cutting into the deficit possession by possession until they finally took their first lead with just over two minutes remaining. Then the defense — the part of the team most closely associated with Munn — had one final responsibility.
Jenks got the ball back with a chance to win, but Carroll forced a turnover on downs and ran out the clock.
A NEW CHAPTER
The dramatic debut victory at the Cotton Bowl gave Munn his first official win as a head coach, but for him, the result was secondary to what it revealed about his team.
“More than anything I was just super proud of the team,” he said. “I’m always going to just focus on one play at a time during the season, and we really emulated that in the game.”
The Dragons responded with dozens of small plays — a defensive stop, a first down, a big catch, a quarterback keeping his legs moving — until a 27-point hole had become a one-point victory.
A week later against North Crowley, that same steadiness was tested on the other side of the result. The Dragons fell short in a hard-fought contest against a premier opponent, but Munn’s demeanor hardly changed.
For a program where expectations run sky-high every single Friday night, an early-season loss could easily spark anxiety. But Munn views a setback not as a flaw in the system, but as a blueprint for growth.
His philosophy isn't rooted in riding the emotional highs of a dramatic win or overreacting to a defeat. Instead, Munn measures his program by daily accountability, preparation, and self-reliance. He intentionally models an unflappable presence so that when adversity arrives on the field, his players remain anchored.
These early weeks have offered a clear glimpse of what Munn's tenure will look like. There will always be plenty of attention on the wins and losses, the expectations and the pressure that come with leading one of Texas' most prominent high school football programs.
But inside the locker room, Munn's core message remains simple: stay calm, trust the preparation, and keep playing the next snap.