Burnet girls soccer has its new head coach

CAPTION: Kerrville Tivy girls soccer head coach Doug Ketcham with Lady Antler Reece Zunker, who was named second team all-District 26-5A in 2024. Courtesy photo

The Burnet Consolidated Independent School District girls soccer program has its new head coach.

It’s Doug Ketcham, head coach of the Kerrville Tivy girls soccer team, who resigned to take the Lady Dawgs job after leading the Lady Antlers for two years.

“This is somebody we need,” Burnet athletic director Grant Freeman said. “It was a great fit. It worked out. It lined up.”

Ketchum earned a bachelor’s degree at the University of North Texas and a master’s degree from the Ohio State University. He has been coaching for 23 years.

Ketcham was the assistant soccer coach and head tennis coach at Joshua High School from 2021-23 and the head coach at Haltom High School from 2014-21.

During that time, he met Freeman when the two were working in the Metroplex.

“Not only is he successful on the field but off the field,” Freeman said. “He was somebody who caught my eye. He did a great job of being able to get the kids to compete and believe. He thinks outside the box. That’s one of the things I always look for in a coach – can they think and look at different ways to do things?”

The athletic director noted that Joshua and Haltom’s proximity put them in districts against opponents known for their soccer programs. Joshua faced the Midlothian and Mansfield schools, while Haltom competed against Southlake Carroll, Coppell and Colleyville Heritage.

“(Haltom and Joshua) are not typical soccer hotbeds,” Freeman said, adding that Ketcham was finding ways to field teams that competed in those districts.

One of the big reasons why is because Ketcham knew how to build rapport with students and encouraged them to give soccer a try, Freeman added.

“He’s proven he’s done it well in Joshua and Haltom,” he said.

Ketcham returns to the Austin area after being an assistant boys soccer coach at Round Rock High School during the 2013-14 school year. He was the head women’s soccer coach at Cedar Valley College in Lancaster in 2013 and was the girls soccer head coach at Burleson High School from 2006-12.

Tivy played in District 26-5A that includes San Antonio Pieper, Smithson Valley, New Braunfels Canyon and Boerne Champion in 2024. Pieper posted an 11-2-1 record, while Smithson Valley had a 10-1-3 record and Canyon and Champion each had identical 10-3-1 records. Tivy finished fifth.

Realignment for the 2024-25 school year moved Boerne High up a classification. Smithson Valley and Pieper each won 13 district matches, while New Braunfels High went 9-5-1 and Boerne High finished 9-6-1. Tivy, which Ketcham said was “a young team,” finished seventh.

“He’s done a good job in Kerrville,” Freeman said.

The Burnet Lady Dawgs posted a tremendous run in the last four years with a 79-23-5 overall record and 45-5-1 in district play. During that time, they won three district titles but the one year they didn’t win it was the season that ended with a historical march to the Class 4A Region III tournament. That was in 2022.