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Fleener leaving Brandeis to become head football coach at Mesquite

Brandeis head football coach Jeff Fleener is leaving the Broncos to become head coach at Mesquite High School in the Dallas area, multiple sources said Saturday.

Football coach Jeff Fleener, who won four state championships in nine seasons as offensive coordinator at Allen High School, went 14-9 in two seasons at Brandeis. 

Brandeis head football coach Jeff Fleener is leaving the Broncos to become head coach at Mesquite High School in the Dallas area, multiple sources said Saturday.

Fleener, who has coached at Brandeis for the past two seasons, told his players Friday that he is leaving the school, sources said.

Fleener, 37, said in a text Saturday morning that he could not “comment or confirm anything” until Monday night. The Mesquite ISD board of trustees meets Monday night and is expected to hire a new coach to succeed Robbie Robinson, who is retiring at the end of the school year.

The son of a former high school coach, Fleener coached in the Dallas area for 12 seasons before landing his first head-coaching job at Brandeis in February 2015.

A 1998 Madison High School graduate, Fleener went 14-9 at Brandeis after succeeding John Campbell, the Broncos’ first head coach, in February 2015. Brandeis went 69-19 and reached the state quarterfinals three times in its first seven seasons before Campbell resigned.

The Broncos made the playoffs in each of Fleener’s two seasons at the helm, finishing 7-5 in 2015 and 7-4 last season. His first team reached the second round of the postseason and lost to Clemens 35-31.

“It’s difficult for me to make any comment right now because, officially, it goes to the school board Monday night,” Northside ISD'S Stan Laing said. “I don’t want to do anything to jeopardize Jeff in that regard. That’s just a professional courtesy to him. I’ll be happy to comment after Monday night.”

Fleener was offensive coordinator at Allen High School for nine seasons before taking his first head-coaching job at Brandeis. Allen won four state championships, including three in a row from 2012-14, and went 116-10 during Fleener’s stint on the Eagles’ staff. He was also Allen’s assistant head coach.

Jeff Fleener, talking to his players during a preseason workout, coached at South Garland and Allen high schools before landing his first head-coaching job at Brandeis in 2015. 

Fleener started his career at South Garland High School in 2003 after he graduated from Texas A&M in December 2002. He moved to Allen in 2006.

Fleener has strong ties to Mesquite through his wife, Katy. She graduated from Mesquite High School and her parents worked in the Mesquite ISD for more than 35 years. The new Mesquite superintendent and deputy superintendent both worked in Allen ISD when Fleener coached in the district.

Mesquite finished 3-7 last year and hasn’t had a winning season since going 11-1 in 2012, when it won district and reached the second round of the playoffs. Robinson went 40-56 in nine seasons at Mesquite.

Fleener’s father, Marshall, was a longtime high school coach before ending his career in public education as an assistant athletic director at North East ISD. He returned to coaching as an assistant at Trinity before returning to the high school ranks as a freshman coach at Central Catholic.

Jeff Fleener is the latest San Antonio-area high school football coach to resign since the end of the 2016 season. Campbell, his predecessor at Brandeis, stepped down at Madison this week after only one season with the Mavericks.

RELATED: Campbell resigns as football coach at Madison after only one season

Longtime Reagan coach David Wetzel left the Rattlers in December to join the staff of new Baylor coach Tom Ruhle. Lyndon Hamilton, Reagan’s defensive coordinator the past four seasons, was promoted to head coach last month.

Scott Lehnhoff, who went 53-7 in four seasons at Steele and led the Knights to the Class 6A Division II state final last year, left coaching last month to become athletic director of the Schertz-Cibolo-Universal City ISD.

Eddie Salas resigned at Holmes in December to become head coach at Harlan, the new NISD high school set to open in August. Former Highlands coach Juan Morales was hired to succeed Salas at Holmes.

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