The Kent Laster-era at Denton Braswell is over after three seasons as Denton ISD has listed the Braswell head football coach/campus coordinator position on the Denton ISD website.

It’s been a tumultuous six months for the Braswell football program. In late July, several media outlets in the DFW area reported that a student had urged the removal of Coach Laster at a Denton ISD school board meeting.

Word emerged in mid-December that Laster was placed on administrative leave by the district. There was no disclosure of the nature of the investigation, but  the matter was not related to students in a letter sent to parents by the BHS principal.

Laster’s tenure at Braswell started out promising with a competitive 4-6 record in 2023, but the Bengals have posted back-to-back 2-8 seasons, Braswell’s last playoff appearance was as a Class 5A program in 2019.

Coach Laster had developed a reputation as a coach who could turn struggling programs around with impressive reclamation projects at Little Rock Central in Arkansas and Waco University before coming back to the DFW area where he grew up. In 2021 Laster took over at University and the Trojans posted an 0-10 mark, but in 2022 he turned the program around posting a 6-6 mark and earning that program’s first playoff appearance and victory since 2009.

If history is any indication on how this job opening will be handled by Denton ISD, expect the process to be efficient with athletic director Joey Florence leading the search. Braswell will remain in Class 6A in the upcoming UIL realignment, so expect them to likely remain in a very competitive district going into the 2026 season.