Interviewer: I’ve been following your work since you technically started as a Euless Trinity Barstool style page back in November 2024. Your very first post, a Trinity vs Bell gameday graphic, generated around 150,000 views and more than 1,000 likes. At the time, you only covered Trinity football, with the only exception being Crowley vs North Crowley. Did you ever imagine that page would eventually become NTXPreps?
Owner: Not at all. It started because I enjoyed making graphics and wanted to cover Trinity football in a different way. There wasn’t a long term business plan. I wasn’t thinking about building a sports outlet or covering North Texas. I just wanted to create content around the school I followed every week. When that first post performed well, it gave me confidence, but I never imagined it would eventually grow into what NTXPreps is today.
Interviewer: After the 2024 football season, you disappeared. Many people assumed the page was finished.
Owner: That was the assumption. After the season ended, I stepped away completely. During the beginning of 2025, I rebuilt everything behind the scenes. There wasn’t an announcement or any teasers. I wanted to come back with something that had a much bigger purpose than covering one school.
Interviewer: Then August 2025 arrived and 817Preps officially launched. The preseason rankings immediately gained attention. Was that the moment you realized this could become something much bigger?
Owner: Yes. That rankings post was the first indication that people wanted coverage beyond Trinity. It showed there was room for another outlet in Fort Worth if I continued improving. Even then, I already had the vision of eventually building something like NTX. It was always in the back of my mind. I knew 817Preps wasn’t the final destination. The goal was to build a foundation first before expanding into something much larger.
Interviewer: Not long after that, your collaboration with FiveeShotIt started getting attention. Looking back, how important was that moment?
Owner: It became one of the biggest turning points in the early months of 817Preps. Working with FiveeShotIt opened a lot of doors. After that collaboration, more creators connected with him started reaching out. People like ShotByShawn and several other well known creators began collaborating with 817Preps, which introduced the page to a much larger audience. More importantly, it gave me confidence because people I respected believed in what I was building. That momentum motivated me to keep improving and reinforced the idea that 817Preps had the potential to become much bigger than I originally imagined.
Interviewer: Looking back now, do you think you rushed onto the biggest stage too quickly? You were a brand new outlet trying to compete against organizations that had already been established for years.
Owner: I do.
Those early graphics weren’t very good. They looked rushed, inconsistent, and sloppy. At the same time, I was trying to compete with organizations that had years of experience while I was still learning everything myself.
During all of 817Preps, I was doing everything. Every graphic, every post, every update, every message, every partnership, every conversation with photographers, and every decision came through me.
There wasn’t a graphic department or a media team behind the page.
Trying to compete at that level while learning everything at the same time was difficult. Looking back, I wasn’t ready for that stage yet.
Interviewer: Even after that early momentum, there was a point where 817Preps nearly came to an end. What was happening behind the scenes?
Owner: The page had reached its lowest point.
Views had dropped significantly, engagement wasn’t where it had been, and it felt like the momentum disappeared. Every post seemed to perform worse than the one before it. For the first time, I seriously considered whether continuing made sense.
Running everything alone made that period even more difficult because there wasn’t anyone else helping carry the workload.
That stretch forced me to rethink everything. Instead of focusing on posting more content, I focused on building a better product. Without going through that period, I don’t think NTXPreps would exist in the form it does today.
Interviewer: Then everything changed around November and December. While you were still running the page by yourself, 817Preps generated roughly 15 million views in November and another 20 million in just the first two weeks of December. At the same time, people began noticing a completely different style in your graphics. What changed?
Owner: That was the biggest turning point of the entire journey.
The page began growing faster than I expected. Generating around 35 million views during that stretch completely changed my perspective on what 817Preps could become.
At the same time, I realized that if I wanted the brand to continue growing, the graphics had to evolve with it.
That was when I began transitioning from Canva to Adobe.
It wasn’t an overnight process. I spent countless hours learning new techniques, experimenting with different styles, and rebuilding the way I approached design.
The original Final Score and Halftime graphics became the first graphics that truly broke through. People weren’t just recognizing the scores anymore. They were recognizing the design itself.
Those graphics became the foundation of the visual identity people now associate with NTXPreps, and almost everything we’ve created since then has been built from the lessons learned during that period.
Interviewer: Basketball district play also introduced the first 817Preps graphic team. Those graphics received a lot of criticism, especially because they were still being produced in Canva.
Owner: They did.
At that point I cared more about quantity than quality because I wanted us covering as many games as possible.
Most of those graphics were still being made in Canva, and people weren’t afraid to criticize them.
I understood why.
Instead of taking that criticism personally, I used it as motivation. It pushed me to spend more time learning Adobe, improving the graphics, and raising the standard for everything we produced.
Looking back, that criticism became one of the biggest reasons the graphics eventually reached the level they have today.
Interviewer: Then, in the middle of January 2026, 817Preps officially became NTXPreps. Why was that the right time to rebrand?
Owner: By that point, I felt like 817Preps had accomplished what it needed to. The original goal was to prove there was room for another outlet in Fort Worth. Once that happened, it was time to think bigger.
NTXPreps represented a much larger vision.
It wasn’t just a new name or a new logo. It represented expanding beyond one area and eventually becoming a platform capable of covering all of North Texas. The rebrand also gave the outlet a completely new identity and direction moving forward.
Interviewer: Many people point to March 2026 as the beginning of the strongest era in NTXPreps’ history. Do you agree?
Owner: I do.
March changed everything.
That’s when NTXPowered was created. It became the place where the graphics people recognize today were developed over time. Every week I experimented with different layouts, typography, lighting, textures, and branding until everything finally started coming together.
If someone compares the graphics from March to where they are today, the progression is easy to see. Every project improved on the last one.
Interviewer: NTXPowered also became much more than a graphic page. It started working directly with athletic programs.
Owner: That was another major milestone.
Programs like Grand Prairie, Mansfield, and Saginaw trusted us to create content for their athletic departments during their 6A seasons. Being able to work directly with schools was something I never imagined when I was making Trinity graphics on Canva.
It also showed that the work was beginning to earn trust beyond social media.
This upcoming school year, we’re already having conversations with additional schools from different sports. Hopefully, more programs become part of NTXPowered because that’s something we’re continuing to build.
Interviewer: Another major expansion came in April with the launch of ATXPreps. A lot of people viewed it as more than just another regional page.
Owner: It definitely was.
ATXPreps wasn’t created simply to cover another area. It proved that the model could expand beyond North Texas. More importantly, it became the foundation for something I had wanted to build for a long time.
That was our website.
For a while, I didn’t want everything living only on Instagram. I wanted a place where rankings, news, stories, schedules, original reporting, and interviews could all exist together.
This interview being published there is actually pretty meaningful because that’s exactly what I envisioned when the website was first being planned.
When I started with a Trinity football graphic back in November of 2024, I never imagined we’d be covering state championship events less than two years later.
Receiving those credentials was a moment I’ll always remember because it showed how far the outlet had come in a relatively short amount of time.
Interviewer: Since March, the graphics have continued evolving. Many supporters have said the current style is among the strongest produced by an independent high school sports outlet.
Owner: I appreciate hearing that.
The biggest difference is the amount of time invested into every project. Every graphic builds on lessons learned from previous work.
When I compare what we’re producing today to what I was making during the first few months of 817Preps, the difference is significant.
There’s still room to improve, but the goal has always been to keep raising the standard instead of becoming comfortable.
Interviewer: Another thing that’s become difficult to ignore is the consistency. Your last 15 original NTXPreps posts have all surpassed 100,000 views and more than 1,000 likes. None of them have fallen below those marks.
Owner: That’s probably what I’m most proud of.
Anybody can have one post perform well.
Consistency is much harder.
Seeing 15 straight original posts reach those numbers tells me people aren’t just interacting with one piece of content. They’re consistently coming back because they enjoy what we’re producing.
That motivates me even more because it shows the improvements we’ve made over the last several months are connecting with people.
Interviewer: Nearly a year after launching 817Preps, you’ve become one of the more recognizable independent high school sports outlets in Texas. When you look back at everything that’s happened, what stands out the most?
Owner: How quickly everything changed.
The entire journey started with one Trinity football graphic because I wanted to try something different.
Then it became 817Preps.
Then NTXPreps.
Then NTXPowered.
Then ATXPreps.
Each step happened because the previous one created another opportunity.
There were plenty of mistakes along the way, but every setback ended up becoming part of the foundation for what came next.
Interviewer: What’s next for NTXPreps?
Owner: The goal is to keep expanding.
This upcoming school year we’re planning more statewide coverage, more travel, more original reporting, and coverage of more sports than ever before.
There are also several new ideas that haven’t been announced yet, along with conversations involving additional athletic programs from different sports joining NTXPowered.
The biggest goal is continuing to improve.
I don’t think we’ve reached our best work yet.
Interviewer: One final question.
If someone had shown you today’s NTXPreps back when you were running a Trinity football page in November 2024, what would you have said?
Owner: I probably wouldn’t have believed it.
Back then I was focused on one school and making one graphic at a time.
Now we’re covering schools across Texas, working directly with athletic programs, building our own website, traveling across the state, and continuing to expand.
It’s a reminder that growth doesn’t happen overnight.
Every milestone started with a small decision to keep going, even when the results weren’t immediate.
That’s probably the biggest lesson from this entire journey.
And I'd also like to give a quick shout-out to my buddy @Flicsby_david. He really helped me out in this journey.
