Months
after being named 2019 ALL-USA Football Coach of the Year, Duncanville
head football coach Reginald Samples was suspended for one game after
violating a UIL rule on employment.
It
was reported Wednesday morning in a tweet from Dallas Morning News’
Joseph Hoyt that the USA Today’s 2019 National Coach of the Year would
be suspended from the first game of the 2020 season while the program
will face a one-year probation by UIL.
The
UIL Committee met Wednesday morning with five main points on the
agenda; the most anticipated being the allegations against Duncanville
regarding violations of Section 1202(a)(1), Employment of Coaches in the
UIL Constitution. The rule states:
(1) Full-Time Employees.
A school is not eligible for UIL competition in an athletic activity
unless the head coach and assistant high school coaches are full-time
employees of the school board of the school which the team represents.
This
violation was first presented during a District 8-6A executive
committee meeting at the end of the 2019 season. The committee was
unable to come to a decision regarding the allegations and referred the
situation to UIL.
Samples
helped to lead Duncanville to their second-consecutive state title
appearances. The Panthers have only lost two games in the last two
seasons, both of which came to current title holder Galena Park North
Shore.
This
probation does not remove Duncanville from 2020 playoff hopes and is
more of a warning than anything. The program will be under an extremely
watchful UIL eye for the next season.
This story is still developing.
