The 10 Longest Active TXHSFB Coaches
Is Highland Park Scots' Randy Allen, Albany Lions' Denney Faith, or Duncanville Panthers' Reginald Samples the longest-active head coach in the Texas high school football?
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How many Hall of Famers are actively coaching TXHSFB? There are few like Tony Villarreal, a Rio Grande Valley Sports Hall of Famer who has led Port Isabel to five consecutive playoff berths in his second act at the school.
Villarreal, one of the original adopters of the Slot-T offense, started his coaching career at Port Isabel in 1990. His revolutionary offense led the program to the 1994 state semifinals, widely considered one of the most memorable seasons in the Valley. After retiring in 2016, Villarreal returned to coaching - and the place where it all began - in 2020. He inherited a Port Isabel program coming off three straight losing seasons. The Tarpons have won four consecutive district championships.
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Sanchez is the winningest Hispanic head coach in TXHSFB, with a career record of 248-132.
He took his first head coaching job in 1993 at a Laredo Nixon program that had combined for 10 wins over the previous five years. Sanchez led them to five straight playoff berths, including Laredo ISD’s first bi-district championship in 1997.
Sanchez pulled a similar reclamation act at Laredo United. The Longhorns had made the playoffs six times from 1964 to 2002. Sanchez has turned the playoffs into an expectation at Laredo United. The Longhorns have only missed the postseason tournament three times in his tenure, which began in 2003. Laredo United has made the third round of the playoffs nine times under Sanchez’s watch. In 2026, they seek to become the first Laredo ISD program to ever make the fourth round of the playoffs with returning WR Colt Lozano (110 receptions, 1,859 yards, 27 TD).
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The Smithson Valley that Larry Hill took over in 1993 had no identity. There is no town of Smithson Valley. It’s just a 5A high school in the middle of ranchland, 40 minutes north of San Antonio. The Rangers also had no winning tradition, holding an all-time record of 42-120-5.
Fast forward to 2026, and Smithson Valley is perhaps the most storied and consistent program in San Antonio. The Rangers play suffocating defense with Hill and defensive coordinator Craig Wersterfer. They also never beat themselves. That’s how Hill has climbed to fourth all-time among active TXHSFB coaches with 340 wins. His 33 seasons at Smithson Valley are the second-most at one school (No. 1 will be revealed later in this list).
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Perhaps the only thing more impressive than Reginald Samples’s 365 career wins, sixth-most all-time in TXHSFB, is a coaching tree that has earned him the unofficial title “The Godfather” of Black coaches. His impact on this sport will last for decades after he hangs up the headset.
Many thought that the retirement announcement would come at the conclusion of last season. But after a 10-7 loss in the Class 6A DI State Championship, Samples and his Duncanville program have found a new motivation.
Duncanville will be in a loaded district with North Crowley and Waxahachie, but nobody’s reputation precedes them like Samples. In the last 26 seasons as a head coach, Samples has won fewer than 10 games just three times. He led Dallas Lincoln to its first and only state championship appearance in 2004. Samples then moved to Dallas Skyline, bringing the Raiders to five regional final appearances in eight years from 2007-14. But his most decorated stint has been at Duncanville, where the Panthers have played in six state championship games in eight years.
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For perspective on how long Denney Faith has been roaming the sidelines at Albany, his first season was during Black Monday on Wall Street, the largest one-day percentage decline ever in the stock market. Faith is the active leader among all TXHSFB coaches with the most seasons at a single school (39). He’s chasing former Buda Hays coach Bob Shelton’s 43-year record from 1968-2010.
Since 2003, Faith’s Lions have reached at least the third round of the playoffs in all but three seasons… when they made the second round of the playoffs. After losing his first four trips to the state championship game in 1991, 2009, 2014, and 2015, Faith had a cathartic back-to-back run in 2022 and 2023.
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Randy Allen is the winningest active head coach in TXHSFB with 472 wins, one of three all-time head coaches to reach 400 wins. The pedigree and longevity are both astounding. Second-place Denney Faith, who has been at Albany for 39 years, is 93 wins behind Allen.
Allen is now chasing Phil Danaher for the all-time winningest coach title in TXHSFB. The only way he can tie Danaher this year is if Highland Park goes 16-0. While that record might be a couple of seasons away, Allen needs just one more playoff win to pass Danaher with 94 all-time, the most in state history. With three-year starting QB Buck Randall back at the helm, it’s likely that it will happen in 2026.
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