UIL suspends Gainesville coach Neil Searcy for the season; NCTC's state check shrinks

Gainesville High School will open the football season without head coach Neil Searcy. The University Interscholastic League's State Executive Committee suspended him for one season at its August 6 meeting, according to results the league published that day, after Gainesville ISD reported itself for holding offseason practices in pads.

The published order also placed Searcy on three years' probation, issued a public reprimand and required additional training. The league docked the football program four preseason practices and one scrimmage, and put the district's athletic program on three years' probation with a public reprimand.

Superintendent DesMontes Stewart told families about the ruling the same day. In that notice, the district said it self-reported a Section 1250 offseason football practice violation after an internal review and after information from the Gainesville ISD Police Department. GISD listed six May mornings when players worked in helmets and shoulder pads from 6:30 to 7:30 a.m.: May 6, 8, 11, 12, 13 and 14.

UIL rules bar school teams from offseason skill work before or after the school day. Strength and conditioning outside school hours is held to one hour, and summer sessions may not involve contact or restricted equipment. League policy allows a suspension of a covered district employee to run anywhere from a single day to three years.

The district said the probation does not keep Gainesville teams out of district competition or postseason play.

Across town, North Central Texas College opens 16-week fall classes on August 24, with extended service hours beginning August 17 and a Super Saturday enrollment event at the Gainesville campus on August 22, according to the college calendar. Dr. G. Brent Wallace is the college's chancellor and chief executive officer.

Under House Bill 8, the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board funds community colleges primarily through student-focused outcomes: credentials awarded, transfers and completed dual-credit sequences, with added emphasis on high-demand fields. THECB says lawmakers put $683 million behind the model.

State outcome tables show North Central gained in dual-credit, certificate and occupational-skills-award outcomes between fiscal 2024 and 2025, with high-demand occupational skills awards up about 330 percent. The same tables show associate-degree outcomes did not rise; the combined total slipped slightly.

The money moved the other way. THECB's final fiscal 2026 run puts North Central's formula funding near $14 million, down about 9 percent from what the college was paid the year before, while neighboring Grayson and Weatherford both gained. The near-final fiscal 2027 run lists North Central at roughly $13.6 million, about $1.8 million under what the model would pay without proration. THECB says it prorated because fiscal 2025 outcomes statewide outran a shrinking appropriation, and that proposed rules would trim the weights for disadvantaged and adult learners.

Wallace, in an on-record case study, described the college's job as awarding the credentials students had earned and capturing performance-based funding.

_Editor's note: Everyone charged with a crime is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in a court of law._