North Texas school district cancels remaining varsity high school football season due to injuries

A North Texas school district's varsity high school football season has come to an early end. The reason: injuries and a shortage of healthy players.

Keene Independent School District shared an announcement on its official Facebook page on Tuesday. In addition to canceling the remainder of the 2026 season, the district said it has decided not to field a varsity team for 2027, citing current roster numbers. Keene ISD said it wanted to give other schools enough notice to allow districts enough time to rework their schedules.

"We know how much this impacts our school, coaches, players, and community, and we are truly sorry for the disruption this causes," said Superintendent Ricky Stephens in the statement.

The district said that while the varsity high school football schedule is now canceled, it will still honor all remaining junior high school games. Keene ISD also said it is looking to schedule games against junior varsity teams or smaller private school programs so the team's remaining healthy players could still have a season.

"At the end of the day, this comes down to protecting the safety of our kids and doing what is best for the future of our program. Taking this step allows us to focus on rebuilding our numbers from the bottom up so we can return to varsity competition safely down the road," Stephens' statement reads.

Keene is located about 46 miles southwest of Dallas and about 28 miles south of Fort Worth.