Tag Archives: Mount Vernon ISD

local news, Sports news

Mount Vernon HS grid coach brings trouble … who knew?

A part of me isn’t terribly surprised by the story that developed over yonder at Mount Vernon High School. Then again, is it fair to lay the responsibility of this tempest at the feet of the newly hired football coach? Oh, probably not.

But still …

Two Mount Vernon High School football players have been ruled ineligible to play. The school won’t suffer any forfeiture of games after playing these student-athletes during the team’s first five games of this football season. The University Interscholastic League had considered the forfeiture on the basis of the players enrolling at Mount Vernon simply to play football; the UIL thought differently. It won’t take away the first five wins from Mount Vernon, but the players remain ineligible.

Here, though, is where it gets weird. The new Mount Vernon HS head coach is Art Briles, the former head coach at Baylor University. Briles was fired in the wake of a sex scandal that occurred in Waco involving student-athletes who played for Briles. A law firm hired by Baylor determined that Briles should have acted to prevent the sexual assaults that were occurring, but didn’t.

The scandal also cost the athletic director his job as well as that of the president of the school, Kenneth Starr. Briles was shown the door. He coached football abroad for a couple of years before he got the call to coach Mount Vernon High School.

So, now he’s back in the game (so to speak) in this country. Granted, the eligibility issue concerning the two young men who were deemed ineligible has not a thing to do with the nature of the scandal that erupted at Baylor University.

It just seems to me that trouble seems to follow Art Briles.

Or … maybe it’s just a coincidence.

Strange, man.

Sports news

Once more about hiring Briles at Mount Vernon HS

I got raked over the coals for an earlier blog post critical of a hiring decision at Mount Vernon High School in East Texas.

A fellow who criticized my blog post stood behind the hiring of former Baylor University head football coach Art Briles as the head coach at Mount Vernon HS.

He said this: You are talking about one of the best coaches our state has ever seen. He deserves a second chance. Yes he made mistakes but a college coach cannot babysit all of their players.

I feel the need to respond briefly with — yep! — another blog post.

Briles was fired in 2016 as Baylor’s head coach after he covered up allegations of sexual assault by his players on women at Baylor. The scandal swallowed the campus damn near whole. It also swept away the university’s chancellor, Kenneth Starr, who resigned.

Here is what I cannot accept about the idea that Mount Vernon Independent School District was looking for a first-rate football coach before hiring Art Briles: Texas is a gigantic state chock full of fine football coaches who aren’t tainted by the indelible stain of a sex scandal!

Football is a big deal in this state. Isn’t that what we all recognize? Sure it is!

Therefore, I am baffled, puzzled and utterly astonished that Mount Vernon ISD would turn to a guy with the baggage that Art Briles brings to this job. The Dallas Morning News noted today in an editorial that while Briles is likely to coach his team to a lot of wins on the field, the football program well could be sullied by the history Briles brings to his new job.

I just believe that Mount Vernon ISD could have done so much better than to hire a guy who got fired from his college coaching job because the young men he was assigned to lead toward adulthood became involved in a case of serial sexual assault!

This is the best that a public school system could do?

Hardly.

local news, State news

Mount Vernon ISD has just made a big mistake

Art Briles is back in the game.

It ain’t the same as the game he coached while at Baylor University. It’s still the game, on the high school level.

To my way of thinking, this former college head football coach doesn’t deserve to be anywhere near the young men he is going to coach.

Briles got fired from Baylor in May 2016 because of a string of incidents involving players under his charge. They were charged with committing sexual assault on female students at the faith-based university in Waco, Texas. Briles became the face of the scandal.

He got the boot in 2016. Now he’s going to coach high schoolers at Mount Vernon High way over yonder in Deep East Texas.

I am filled with the question: What in the world is the Mount Vernon Independent School District thinking?

If I were king of the world I wouldn’t put this guy anywhere near these young men.

The coach is damaged goods, man! He got fired for cause at Baylor.

Sure, I get that winning matters. Briles already has coached high school teams in Texas successfully, winning state titles while at Stephenville High School. It’s clear to me that at Mount Vernon, winning must matter more than character.

An athletic coach’s responsibility as often as not goes far beyond just ensuring that his teams win more games than they lose. He becomes a sort of surrogate father, someone who should shepherd the young people he leads into leading good and productive lives.

Did the former Baylor coach succeed in that fulfilling that duty? Hardly. Has he learned his lesson? That remains to be seen.

However, I am still scratching my head wondering how in the world a public school district could put its faith in someone who failed so miserably in that important task.