Patrick Mahomes’ High School Coach Recalls How the Chiefs QB Competed For the Starting Job Against Ryan Cheatham

Patrick Mahomes’ football career began in earnest at Whitehouse High School. The world of sports was Mahomes’ oyster. He played and excelled at almost every sport. There was football (surprisingly, the least of his priorities), baseball — the sport he had inherited from his father — and basketball, which he loved the most. The battle was tough, but eventually football won out.

Fast forward to 2025, and Mahomes just got inducted into the Texas High School Football Hall of Fame for his impeccable high school football career at Whitehouse, where he graduated in 2014. He’s also a 3x Super Bowl winner, alongside his tight end and best friend, Travis Kelce. But before there was a Travis Kelce, there was Ryan Cheatham.

Cheatham wasn’t a tight end like Kelce, but a quarterback. However, his relationship with Mahomes was quite like the one the Chiefs QB shares with Kelce now. They were the best of friends — bonding over sports, sleepovers, video games, and ketchup — but they were also competitors, competing for the spot of QB1 during their junior year.

“His sophomore year, he was a starting safety for us. The next year, he comes in, plays quarterback. His best friend Ryan Cheatham and he were kinda competing for the spot. It was important to me that they competed for that spot. In his own right, Ryan Cheatham could’ve been a Division I quarterback, in my mind,” their quarterbacks coach, Ryan Cook, recalled on 365 Sports.

During his sophomore year, Mahomes had an incredible year as a safety. He had remarkable instincts and an understanding of offensive strategy, and his baseball skills, including tracking fly balls, came in handy in the defensive backfield. However, Mahomes didn’t love playing safety; he wanted to be quarterback — the position held by his best friend Cheeto.

In 2012, with both boys now in junior year, Mahomes started as quarterback in the first half in steady rain against rival Sulphur Springs. He managed the first half with no turnovers, no botched snaps, and no fumbled handoffs.

“They battled it out. It was the third game of the year, against the Sulphur Springs, and Patrick was starting. It was one of those games where everything seems to be going well for you and you just don’t want to make a change. And at that point I decided that we’re going to stick with Patrick and he just took off with it,” Cook revealed.

The “change” Cook is referring to is swapping out Mahomes for Cheatham in the second half, like they had been doing for the past few games. However, this time, Cheeto didn’t get to start in the second half. That game was a turning point for both boys. Cheeto’s quarterback career was all but over, and Mahomes’ was just starting.

“At the time, I wouldn’t have admitted it…But I knew Patrick was better than me. I could see it,” Cheatham once admitted. 

“It’s going to hurt. For a while. But you have a new opportunity now. You have an entire team that respects you, and we will have a role for you. You can succeed, and you can help Patrick succeed,” Cook had told a hurt Ryan Cheatham.

Cook told him that Cheatham could shift out to receiver, where he had taken some reps before. “It was definitely tough to come to terms with,” Cheatham says. “But internally, I thought if I was going to lose my spot, I’m glad it was to a guy like Patrick.”

As QB, Mahomes amassed over 8,000 passing yards and 90 touchdowns, earning his place as the first player from the 2010s to be inducted into the Texas High School Football Hall of Fame. And on that field, during that eventful game against the Springs, was none other than Texas Tech’s wide receivers coach Sonny Cumbie — there to see someone else, but leaving with just one name on his mind: Patrick Mahomes. “People are going to know the name Patrick Mahomes really soon,” he famously told Cook.

Thankfully, none of this had any effect on Mahome’s friendship with Cheatham, who was one of the groomsmen at the Chiefs QB’s wedding.