DUNCANVILLE – There are a lot of people to meet and there's a lot of work to do, and Duncanville's new head coach Reginald Samples is ready.
"All I want to do is get better every day," Samples said. "That will be my approach at Duncanville."
Samples won 103 games in nine years at Skyline High School to only 18 losses, and leaves with a 48-game winning streak in district play.
Dallas ISD has not had a state champion in football since 1950, but Samples got closer than anyone else. In 2004, his Lincoln Tigers lost in the championship game, and he took Skyline to the semi-finals twice.
"I'm proud of it. I'm very proud of it," Samples said. "When you work hard and the results are positive, it makes you proud."
Duncanville ISD Athletic Director Cathy Self-Morgan, who is also one of the most successful girls basketball coaches in Texas, said having a coach that can take a football team to a championship level makes a big difference across the campus.
"In girls basketball, you can win state three, four, five times," Self-Morgan said. "But when football gets up there in wins, the entire school climate is up there and positive."
Duncanville offers Samples something he didn't have at Skyline: an on-campus stadium. The added benefit is that his team has a place to practice under the lights in December, something he hasn't had in the past.
"And you've been to my fields, you've been to my practices over the years, and we're blocked when we get our kids every other day, so there's a day that we get on the field at 4:40 [p.m.]," Samples said. "Well, it gets dark at 5:40."
Duncanville is just one of the high-profile jobs that opened up this off-season, including Trinity, DeSoto, Arlington Lamar, Waxahachie, and Prosper, among others.
And, of course, Skyline has an opening as well, now that Samples is in Duncanville.
