Gainesville head coach (and athletic director) Neil Searcy will be suspended for the entire 2026 high school football season. He was found in violation of Texas state rules for practice.
His players wore “contact equipment” in May, which is not allowed.
In addition to their head coach’s full-season suspension, the Leopards will lose practice time during the high school football preseason and their first scrimmage. The ruling cannot be appealed.
The Gainesville High School football team is not very good.
Located 70 miles north of Dallas, Gainesville High School sits less than 15 miles south of the Oklahoma border. It enrolls approximately 875 students in a town with a total population of approximately 17,000.
The Leopards compete in the second division of UIL Class 4A. They have not finished above .500 since 2019. Not great.
Neil Searcy was hired as head coach in 2022. He has not had a lot of success. Gainesville went 5-7 in 2022, 5-5 in 2023, and 1-9 in each of the last two seasons. It is set to begin the 2026 regular season on August 28.
Neil Searcy is suspended for a violation of practice rules.
According to Matt Stepp, the UIL State Executive Committee handed down major penalties to the Leopards right before the start of the new season. Gainesville will be stripped of four days of preseason practice and its first preseason scrimmage. Its head coach will be suspended for the 2026 season. Neil Searcy was also placed on probation for three years.
The punishment stems from a “willful” violation of practice rules. Gainesville held six one-hour workouts in May where players wore helmets and shoulder pads. UIL rules prohibit the use of contact equipment during offseason workouts. Full-contact spring football is only permitted for Class 5A and 6A.
Searcy self-reported the violation to the UIL District Executive Committee. However, he only did so after the Gainesville Independent School District Superintendent learned of the workouts through a conversation with local police.
The ruling only applies to Searcy’s role as head football coach. He will be allowed to remain in his role as athletic director. Defensive coordinator LJ Searcy will serve as the interim head coach.
In the meantime, practice will (mostly) continue as scheduled. As part of the punishment, Gainesville may only conduct “offseason workouts equivalent to offseason conditioning” from Friday, Aug. 7 through the following Tuesday. It may then resume practice in helmets and shoulder pads on Wednesday. The Aug. 13 scrimmage against Frisco Legacy Christian is canceled.