North Crowley cornerback John Meredith III pictured at North Crowley High School, Monday, Feb. 9, 2026, in Dallas. Meredith is the top ranked recruit in the Dallas area for the Class of 2027.
Elías Valverde II/Staff Photographer
The University Interscholastic League’s state executive committee rarely grants appeals when an athlete has been ruled ineligible for transferring for athletic purposes.
That trend continued Thursday, even though it was the nation’s second-ranked football recruit whose eligibility was in question.
Five-star Texas pledge John Meredith III had his appeal denied by a 3-2 vote after a local district executive committee initially ruled him ineligible for the 2026 season. The UIL’s state executive committee agreed Meredith transferred for athletic purposes when he moved from Euless Trinity to North Crowley in the offseason.
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That leaves the nation’s top-ranked cornerback considering his options. Meredith could try to go back to Trinity — where he would be eligible to play — or he could transfer to a private school or to a school outside of Texas.
If Meredith were far enough along academically, he could also forgo his senior year and start college early. That’s the path former Southlake Carroll five-star quarterback Quinn Ewers took in 2021, when the nation’s No. 1 recruit wanted to get to Ohio State as soon as possible so he could start earning money from name, image and likeness deals.
Darren Heitner, the attorney representing Meredith in his appeal, posted a statement on X lashing out at the UIL after the hearing. He called it “an absolutely corrupt proceeding.”
“Two of the 3 individuals who voted against our appeal expressed grave concerns with the testimony they were relying upon, but still ruled as they did. The other individual, who chaired the meeting, was out of line and clearly made up his mind before the proceeding,” Heitner wrote.
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“This case came down to one question: Did John Meredith transfer to North Crowley High School for athletic purposes, or did his family make a genuine, documented change of residence for reasons that have nothing to do with football? Three individuals deemed it was a football decision in the absence of any evidence whatsoever. The other two members understood that his prior coach contradicted himself and had no basis to claim that John’s move was athletically motivated.”
The UIL’s decision wasn’t a surprise. This past school year, the state executive committee denied eligibility appeals for 59 out of 64 athletes statewide — 92%.
Also Thursday, the committee rejected an appeal by four-star quarterback Colton Nussmeier, who transferred from Flower Mound Marcus to Denton Ryan.
Neither North Crowley coach DeMarcus Harris nor Euless Trinity coach Aaron Lineweaver immediately responded to phone calls seeking comment.
In the hearing, Meredith’s mother, Chasity Parks, argued that the reason the family moved was because she got remarried and it was a shorter commute to North Crowley from her new residence. That, and the fact Meredith had grown up in the Crowley community before his biological father passed away in 2021.
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“That’s where his dad grew up, and it felt like we were going home coming to North Crowley,” Parks said. “It was a very hard decision for our family as a whole.”
Meredith’s mother is a peace officer, giving her the opportunity to choose which school her son attends, according to UIL rules. The state executive committee said there was no residency issue in this case.
Lineweaver said in the hearing the family could have moved to several schools closer to Parks’ new residence, such as Burleson, Burleson Centennial and Everman. Lineweaver also said he had multiple meetings with Meredith and his mother to talk about how Meredith needed to better handle the adversity he faced at Trinity.
Transferring to one of the schools Lineweaver mentioned would be another option for Meredith, but likely would require another DEC hearing.
North Crowley won the Class 6A Division I state title in 2024 and reached a regional final and finished 12-2 last season. It was expected to be a state title contender again in 2026 but now will be without the state’s second-ranked recruit.
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Parks said the family thought about returning to Trinity but decided against it, despite the move to North Crowley being hard on Meredith.
“John was missing Coach Lineweaver; he was missing his friends there,” Parks said. “When he got back to North Crowley, I think everything just hit him. We had such a good relationship with Coach Lineweaver that I called him and reached out and said he’s struggling a little bit, but if you could just talk to him and tell him that everything is going to be OK, because we have that relationship with Aaron. The only reason we left was because of the commute and it was hard for us.”
Meredith had downplayed problems he was having at Trinity, according to testimony from the DEC hearing, including not showing up for some practices last season. His mother said Thursday he was struggling academically because he wasn’t getting enough sleep from having to get up early to commute to Trinity.
Meredith said during the hearing he was away from the Trinity team for a short period of time because he was receiving treatment in Frisco for an ankle injury.
“I was just getting recovery, but I came back and I played, so there was no problem,” he said.
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Meredith headlines a Texas recruiting class that is ranked No. 4 in the nation for 2027. He has the third-highest recruiting ranking for anyone who has signed or committed to UT straight out of high school since 247Sports began tracking that statistic, trailing only quarterbacks Vince Young and Arch Manning.
Meredith was chosen for the Under Armour All-American Game and was a first-team all-district selection as a junior for an 8-3 Trinity team that lost to Mansfield Lake Ridge in the first round of the playoffs. He was among five North Crowley players ranked among the top 75 recruits in the Dallas area.