“I love seeing the kids and the coaches every day. During the summer, Coach Samples sent his assistant coaches looking for a player who had not participated in team conditioning.

“This is not because they’re all needed to complete the squad, but because being a part of the team is necessary to complete them,” he relates. Campus PTA meetings are held monthly at each campus, typically in the evening. He’s not at six figures because he just started. “The money isn’t being dropped out of the sky. Council PTA Board Meetings  (Council Board members, local PTA Presidents) are held from 8:30-9:15 am and Council PTA General Meetings (Council Board, local PTA Presidents, Principals, another PTA representative, open to public) are held from 9:30-10:30 am. Our graduation rate has gone up the last six years and Coach Criss is a big part of the team effort here at Sam Houston.”, “He was a big impact on me,” said his son Dominique, who is an assistant at North Crowley. The 2018 season was also the first ever for the Panthers to achieve a 15 game winning season. Something else most people don’t know is coaching salaries are non-negotiable.

You learn what to say because you’ve gone through it,” Samples said. Anthony has a lot to do with that.

Duncanville ISD’s head varsity football coach has done a tremendous job of rebuilding the Duncanville football program in his four years with the district.

I’m no longer ‘Coach Criss the football coach.’ I’m just ‘Coach Criss.’ I’ll have kids come see me, kids I don’t even coach, so it’s been amazing.”. It’s the hard work.”, “A lot of the goals and things you need to be a successful person are offered in football, he said.

The most important job for Samples is being a father figure.

It’s more than the wins and losses,” Hill said. “We’re going to turn the program around, he said. Coach Samples does not believe in cutting players from the team. Remember, Willie made barely over $200 in his first month on the job in 1961. Anthony has reached that point in his career where he’s coaching kids of his former high school kids.

Dates for the 2012-2013 school year will be posted soon.

The Texans have just one playoff appearance with Criss when the team went 7-4 in 2014. Sam Houston’s graduation rate has improved each of the last six years. “Just seeing dad’s interaction with the kids and parents, I wanted that same approach and to follow his footsteps in coaching.

Anthony and Zachary Criss took their parents out for their 56th anniversary not too long ago and, like any good sons, picked up the tab. “It’s been very fulfilling and I’ve loved every second of it.”. It’s the struggle.

DUNCANVILLE—Coach Reginald Samples is a winner. “He was this big time recruit and I was a student, but we’ve continued to keep in touch,” Criss said.

Prior to arriving in Duncanville, Reginald Samples served as head football coach for 25 years in the Dallas Independent School district including nine years at Skyline High School.