{"id":478483,"date":"2026-10-27T20:14:08","date_gmt":"2026-10-27T20:14:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/478483\/"},"modified":"2026-10-27T20:14:08","modified_gmt":"2026-10-27T20:14:08","slug":"texas-high-school-ends-football-season-head-coach-steps-down","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/478483\/","title":{"rendered":"Texas high school ends football season; head coach steps down"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>An Austin high school has canceled the rest of its football season because of player safety concerns and a shrinking roster. Its head coach has also stepped down.<\/p>\n<p>The Liberal Arts and Science Academy, part of Austin\u00a0ISD, will forfeit its remaining games this season, according to a letter from Principal Stacia Crescenzi obtained by<a href=\"https:\/\/www.kxan.com\/sports\/austin-isd-high-school-football-team-to-forfeit-remainder-of-season\/\" data-link=\"native\" class=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"> KXAN Austin.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The decision follows the Raptors\u2019 forfeit of Friday\u2019s game against\u00a0Pflugerville. Crescenzi cited the roster size and player safety concerns as the primary reasons for ending the season early.<\/p>\n<p>The University Interscholastic League also supported the recommendation to forfeit the remaining games after evaluating the program\u2019s situation.<\/p>\n<p>Head coach Gary Howard stepped down to allow someone else to develop a new vision for the football program, according to the letter.<\/p>\n<p>Crescenzi said the school will establish an advisory group to evaluate the program\u2019s future. An interim head coach is expected to be named next week and will serve on the group.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis has been a challenging season for our entire football community, but in particular for our seniors and their families,\u201d\u00a0Crescenzi wrote. \u201cWhile the long-term path forward for Raptor Football is still being determined, the outcome of this season in no way diminishes the extraordinary dedication, resilience, and hard work our players have demonstrated.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An Austin high school has canceled the rest of its football season because of player safety concerns and&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":478484,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[132,134,133],"class_list":["post-478483","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-austin","tag-austin","tag-austin-headlines","tag-austin-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/478483","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=478483"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/478483\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/478484"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=478483"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=478483"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=478483"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}