A football program that took just five years to climb from junior high snaps to Class 3A varsity competition has abruptly ended its varsity season, with Keene ISD canceling the remainder of its 2026 varsity season and announcing it will not field a varsity team in 2027. The culprit, according to district leaders, was simple attrition: a wave of injuries left Keene High School with only 15 healthy players on a varsity roster that opposing Class 3A programs fill with rosters averaging 45.
Keene High School, located south of Fort Worth, opened the 2026 season with a 28-8 non-district win over Riesel before dropping three straight games, a 1-3 start that ended up being the whole season. According to MySA, the team never reached a single district contest in Class 3A, Division I, where it had just entered its inaugural district schedule this year. Six scheduled October games against District 6-3A opponents are now forfeits, a scheduling disruption that Sports Illustrated reports district rivals will now have to absorb.
Keene ISD Superintendent Dr. Ricky Stephens wrote that the cancellation decision protects both student safety and the future of the program, and said the team will rebuild its numbers from the bottom up before returning to varsity competition. Injuries left Keene with 15 healthy players, and administrators declined to promote inexperienced freshmen to face opposing 3A teams given the stark size mismatch. The district also chose to cancel the 2027 varsity season preemptively, which Stephens said gives neighboring District 6-3A schools advance notice to redraw schedules and find non-district replacement opponents rather than face sudden forfeits mid-season.
A Program Built From Scratch In Just Five Years
Keene ISD only launched football at the junior high level in 2021, then built steadily toward 11-man varsity competition, going 6-2 as an independent in 2025 before joining UIL 3A Division I district play this fall. Keene High School has an enrollment of more than 750 students, according to MySA, while UIL's 2026–2028 realignment covers the 2026–2027 and 2027–2028 cycles, per the University Interscholastic League.
Despite pulling out of official UIL district play, the team is seeking non-district exhibition games for healthy high school players, according to FOX 4 Dallas-Fort Worth. The goal, per that report, is to keep healthy players active while the program rebuilds depth from underneath. Matt Stepp of Dave Campbell's Texas Football reported that Keene's 2026 and 2027 varsity seasons both ended after four games, and said starting a varsity football program at a small school has become more difficult than it used to be.
Roster Crunches Have Hit Other Small Texas Programs
Keene is not the first small Texas program to run out of healthy bodies mid-season. In September 2025, both McDade High School and Snook High School forfeited the remainder of their District 13-2A Division II schedules after McDade's roster fell to 13 healthy players following injuries.
The timing stung locally: the cancellation came less than a week after Keene High School had drawn the largest homecoming crowd in the school district's history, according to WFAA. Anthony Boykin said the loss of football reaches far beyond the field, affecting spirit groups, band, ROTC, student council and other student organizations, and stripping away community events such as homecoming, dances, parades and pep rallies. The cancellation will also affect the wider community.
Parents Split On What Comes Next
The decision has sparked debate among parents and supporters. Tabatha Ritch expressed support for Keene ISD's move, while other parents have urged the school to consider transitioning to six-man football or dropping to Class 1A as alternatives to pausing varsity football entirely.
UIL alignment is set through two-year cycles. For now, Keene ISD's plan is to use the pause to rebuild player numbers from the ground up and return to varsity competition once the roster can safely match up against Class 3A competition again.
