(The Dallas Examiner) – This year has been a historic season for five local Black head coaches in football and basketball who dominated state title games and won championships for their schools.
Nick Smith, head basketball coach at Justin F. Kimball High School; Brandon Thomas, head basketball coach at Faith Family Academy; Claude Mathis, head football coach at DeSoto High School; Jason Todd, head football coach at South Oak Cliff High School; and Reginald Samples, head football coach at Duncanville High School all led their teams to the Texas UIL State Championship title in their respective divisions.
As a result of their efforts, the Prairie View Interscholastic Coaches Association along with the Texas Black Sports Hall of Fame presented the coaches with an award and plaque on July 5 at the African American Museum in Dallas.
“Our purpose today is to recognize these coaches in the big city of Dallas who won state championships,” said Robert Brown, chairman of the PVIL Board. “Our purpose is to ensure that you all have been recognized because this is something unusual to have this many state championships in this area, especially in football.”
Prairie View Interscholastic League Coaches Association was founded to preserve and commemorate the history of the League and its governance over athletic, academic and music competitions for the state’s Black high schools during segregation. It was originally organized as the Texas Interscholastic League of Colored Schools in 1920 by Prairie View A&M College officials and existed until 1970 when its merger with the University Interscholastic League was completed. After many organizational changes, in 2005 it became the PVILCA, according to its website.
At a time when it seems it is difficult for Black coaches to move up to head coaching positions at the NFL and college levels, Brown said the organization offered a special place for high school coaches who achieved great success in the field of sports.
“It means a lot of pride,” Brown said. “If you know anything about Black coaches, you know having pride is what pulls us forward in the work we do. If you look up here and see these coaches here, they have Black pride. On the plaque that they received, you will see the words, ‘A Job Well Done.’ We all said it takes talent to win, but to make that talent and put it all together, sometimes it is divided up wrong, the city is divided up, and what happened is the Black talent we had in the city would go to the White schools and leave and transfer. But now, we have Black talent staying in the schools.”
Todd, who made history by leading South Oak Cliff High school to back-to-back state title games championships and becoming the first DISD school to do so, said this is a special moment for him.
“I thank God, and I think what we have done is we have kicked in the door, and I think we are going to be here for a while,” Todd said. “It just goes toward the homework and dedication not only us as a head coach, but the staff and the community, and there has also been a lot of support from the administration that kind of makes the overall thing all connected and go in one direction. We are just on the top of the figurehead but believe me there are a lot of people that help make things happen.”
Todd has coached for 22 years and is one of several recipients of the 2022-2023 PVIL Coaches of the Year.
“I chose coaching as a career because I knew it would mean I didn’t feel like I was working, so I knew I had to get certified to go be a teacher, and as I became a coach also, it all worked out for me,” he said. “It is part of being a coach to be a dad to these students because you have a lot of kids underneath you so you are literally the parent when those parents trust you and leave their kids with you for so many hours in the day for four years and also for a lifetime, it kind of puts you in a fathers role to not only your own kids but your extended family too which is the school.”
All coaches were also recognized at the 44th Annual PVILCA Hall of Honor/Hall of Fame Banquet Gala in Houston, July 15.