Art Briles' HS team already facing reprimand after less than a year at the helm
About five months after he landed a high school job in Texas, former Baylor coach Art Briles is facing a public reprimand following news that his team played two ineligible players.
Mount Vernon High School has reportedly avoided a forfeiture of games after a meeting of the University Interscholastic League, a governing body in Texas, according to the Dallas Morning News.
Briles coached at Baylor from 2008 to 2016 and was fired amid a sexual assault scandal. He previously coached at Houston (2003-07) and coached Texas high school football for 20 years.
The school is appealing the decision, and the two players are still ineligible, but a possible five-game forfeiture was avoided after the UIL met.
Briles was also publicly reprimanded by the committee for using an assistant coach who wasn’t a full-time employee of the district, also a violation of UIL rules.
Briles, 63, was hired by Mount Vernon, which is an East Texas town of about 3,000 people, after a school-commissioned investigation by a law firm led to a 13-page “finding of fact” report from Baylor’s Board of Regents. That report said that football staff members conducted inquiries into sexual assaults by players and did not report them to administration, and that school administrators also encouraged victims to not report complaints.
Briles received a $15.1 million settlement from the school — less than half of the $39 million remaining on his 10-year contract — and has denied wrongdoing.
Mount Vernon started the season 5-0.