{"id":494195,"date":"2026-01-05T13:59:13","date_gmt":"2026-01-05T13:59:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/494195\/"},"modified":"2026-01-05T13:59:13","modified_gmt":"2026-01-05T13:59:13","slug":"a-3-time-state-champ-is-among-big-names-north-crowley-could-reach-out-to-for-coaching-job","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/494195\/","title":{"rendered":"A 3-time state champ is among big names North Crowley could reach out to for coaching job"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of the premier head coaching jobs in Texas high school football opened up last month when Ray Gates decided to leave North Crowley<\/a> to accept a job as <\/b>the defensive line coach at North Texas.<\/p>\n

The move happened a year after Gates led North Crowley to a 16-0 record<\/a> and the Class 6A Division I state title. North Crowley made another deep playoff run this year, reaching a regional final and finishing 12-2 to give Gates a record of 54-4 in four seasons at North Crowley.<\/p>\n

North Crowley has enjoyed a remarkable turnaround that started under Courtney Allen and then went to another level with Gates. North Crowley had 14 consecutive losing seasons from 2006 to 2019, going 36-105 in that span, before posting a record of 67-12 over the last six years and winning its first state title since 2003.<\/p>\n

There will be a lot of elite coaches that North Crowley can consider for its head coaching job. Here are four of the biggest names, including three-time state champion Claude Mathis.<\/p>\n

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This doesn\u2019t mean that any of these four are necessarily looking to leave their current school. But they are people that North Crowley could potentially reach out to.<\/p>\n

DeSoto head coach Claude Mathis<\/p>\n

This would be a home run hire for North Crowley if it could get Mathis to leave DeSoto, where he has won three Class 6A Division II state titles in the last four years<\/a>. But that is a big if, because Mathis has built a dynasty at DeSoto, compiling a record of 157-34 in two stints at the school.<\/p>\n

That is despite the fact that DeSoto opted to remain in Class 6A<\/a> for the current UIL alignment, even though it had a 5A enrollment. DeSoto\u2019s shrinking enrollment for the upcoming realignment in February is 1,932<\/a> \u2014 283 students below the 6A cutoff of 2,215 \u2014 while North Crowley has an enrollment of 3,049.<\/p>\n

DeSoto hasn\u2019t announced if it will opt up to 6A once again or if it will drop down to 5A Division I for the next two years.<\/p>\n

Mathis led DeSoto to back-to-back Class 6A Division II state titles in 2022 and 2023, and the 2023 team was 15-0 and routed Humble Summer Creek 74-14 in the state championship game<\/a> while breaking records for most points scored in a state championship game in the UIL\u2019s top classification and for largest margin of victory in a UIL state championship game for any classification. This year, DeSoto started 0-2 and 3-3 before winning its last 10 games and routing Houston C.E. King 55-27 in the 6A Division II state title game<\/a>.<\/p>\n

DeSoto finished 13-3 this year and has won at least nine games in all seven seasons since Mathis returned as head coach after working as SMU\u2019s running backs coach for two years and as Marshall High School\u2019s head coach in 2017 and 2018. Mathis returned to DeSoto in 2019, replacing Mike Robinson, and is 83-16 since.<\/p>\n

North Forney head coach Marcus Shavers<\/p>\n

Shavers is 18-6 in two years as the head coach at North Forney and is coming off a 10-2 season. That tied the school record for most wins in a season and continued a remarkable turnaround for a school that was 5-15 from 2021 to 2022.<\/p>\n

Shavers helped transform Legend Bey into one of the best players in the state, using the four-star athlete at quarterback and watching Bey run for 1,780 yards and 30 touchdowns as a senior before he signed with Ohio State<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Shavers was 37-31 as the head coach at McKinney from 2018 to 2023, including an 8-5 season in 2022 and a 9-3 record in 2023. The nine wins were McKinney\u2019s most since a 10-3 season in 1993.<\/p>\n

Related<\/p>\n

\"SouthlakeCoppell head coach Antonio Wiley<\/p>\n

Wiley is 43-6 in four seasons as Coppell\u2019s head coach<\/a> and has won at least nine games every year. Coppell lost just one game in 2023 and 2024, winning district titles both years, before finishing 10-2 this season.<\/p>\n

Before Wiley took over, Coppell hadn\u2019t won more than seven games in a season since 2017.<\/p>\n

Wiley was the head coach at Wichita Falls Hirschi from 2019 to 2021 and was 24-12 there. He led Hirschi to the 4A Division I state semifinals in 2021.<\/p>\n

Hutto head coach Eli Reinhart<\/p>\n

This would be a homecoming for Reinhart, who was the offensive coordinator for North Crowley\u2019s state championship team in 2024. Reinhart directed one of the most prolific offenses in state history, as North Crowley scored 864 points that year \u2014 the most points in a season in Dallas-area history.<\/p>\n

Reinhart was at North Crowley for three seasons and the school was 42-2 during that time. North Crowley averaged 54 points per game in 2024 and scored 50 or more 11 times, including six games with more than 60.<\/p>\n

Reinhart took his first head coaching job at Hutto and was 9-3 this year in his first season at the school. Hutto averaged 40.3 points.<\/p>\n

Find more high school sports coverage from <\/b>The Dallas Morning News<\/b> here<\/b><\/a>.<\/p>\n

Sign up for our FREE HS newsletter<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One of the premier head coaching jobs in Texas high school football opened up last month when Ray…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":494196,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5138],"tags":[5229,13371,13423,1318,7371,7372,10858,13348,13415,358,3187,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-494195","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fort-worth","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-coppell-school","10":"tag-desoto-school","11":"tag-football","12":"tag-fort-worth","13":"tag-fortworth","14":"tag-high-schools","15":"tag-north-crowley-school","16":"tag-north-forney-school","17":"tag-texas","18":"tag-tx","19":"tag-united-states","20":"tag-united-states-of-america","21":"tag-unitedstates","22":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","23":"tag-us","24":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115842853453812915","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/494195","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=494195"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/494195\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/494196"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=494195"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=494195"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=494195"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}