School District in Texas Decides to Cancel Football for Two Seasons

The Keene Chargers played in just four games before the district ended the rest of the 2026 season

The Keene Independent School District in Texas decided to cancel the rest of the Chargers' 2026 varsity football season and next season due to safety concerns. | Keene ISD/Facebook

Keene Independent School District in Texas recently announced that effective immediately, it will take a safe approach and cancel the remainder of the Chargers’ varsity football season this year and next season as well.

Injuries Led to Shortage of Healthy Players

Dr. Ricky Stephens, the Keene ISD superintendent, noted in a release on Tuesday that the rest of the 2026 schedule has been canceled “due to a high number of injuries and a shortage of healthy players.”

How the Chargers Did This Year and Last Season

The Chargers, a Class 3A program that was competing in the University Interscholastic League (UIL) for the first time this season, won 28-8 in its season opener against Riesel then lost their next three games. Keene did not have a game this week, but there were six games remaining on its schedule for October that ended up as forfeits.

Keene was 6-2 in 2025 after it went through an independent football slate.

“We know how much this impacts our school, coaches, players, and community, and we are truly sorry for the disruption this causes,” Stephens said. “Canceling games that affect our district partners was not an easy choice, and we deeply regret putting those teams in this position.”

Keene’s Football Program Began Five Years Ago

According to a report by USA Today, Keene established its football program in 2021 at the junior high level. The program has won any state titles or made any playoff appearances since its inception.

Stephens noted that looking ahead, the district decided they won’t field a varsity team for the 2027 season.

“Given our current roster numbers, we are afraid we would run into this exact same situation next fall,” Stephens added. “We wanted to give other schools this notice now so their district has enough time to redraw the schedule and find replacement games without having to go through this uncertainty again.”

The District’s Next Steps

Despite not being able to “safely field” a varsity team for the foreseeable future, Stephens said the district is determined to let healthy players continue to play football.

Keene ISD’s plan to handle the rest of the schedule is as follows:

•  Junior High: “We will honor all of our remaining Junior High games as scheduled,” Stephens said.
• JV and Sub-Varsity: “For our remaining healthy high school players, we are actively looking to schedule games against JV teams or smaller private school programs so their season doesn't have to end early,” Stephens added.

“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,” Stephens said. “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.