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Texas fires David Pierce after eight seasons

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Texas fires David Pierce after eight seasons


Following a 36-24 season that included early exits from the Big 12 Tournament and the College Station Regional, Texas Longhorns head coach David Pierce was fired on Monday morning after eight seasons and a 297-162 record on the Forty Acres.

“CDC and I met after the season and we mutually agreed that the best thing for the program was to go in a different direction. It’s been an honor and privilege to lead this program for the last eight years. It certainly is a time I will always cherish as a coach, and I am so appreciative of The University of Texas for the opportunity,” Pierce said in a statement released by the school.

“Thank you to Longhorn Nation, the fan base, our support staff, student assistants and the media who covered us so well. I especially want to thank the coaches and our former and current players who helped us win a lot of games and represented our program in a first-class manner. Thank you all for your hard work, dedication and commitment to Texas Baseball. You will forever be in my heart, and I look forward to continuing to cheer you on in baseball and beyond.”

The decision by athletics director Chris Del Conte came more than three weeks after the season ended with a loss to Louisiana, a stretch that featured notable silence from Del Conte even though Pierce had only two years left on his contract with a buyout of $1.68 million.

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“After the season, Coach Pierce and I had some time to visit about the year, the future of our program, where we are, and where we’re headed,” Del Conte said. “It was a difficult decision for us both, but we have mutually agreed that we should make a change. I am so grateful for Coach Pierce and all he has poured into our baseball program for the past eight years. He is an incredible person, and I’ve truly enjoyed my time working with him. I appreciate the passion, pride and steadfast commitment he had for coaching and working with our student-athletes and am thankful for all he’s done for Texas Athletics and our entire university community as our head coach. I wish Coach Pierce and his family the best in the future.”

A Houston native who played for the Cougars after two seasons at the junior college level, Pierce entered coaching in 1989, spending the next decade coaching at Houston-area high schools before becoming an assistant at his alma mater. After serving as an assistant under legendary Rice head coach Wayne Graham, Pierce became the head coach at Sam Houston in 2012, then moved on to Tulane in 2015, where he spent two years until Texas hired him to replace Augie Garrido in 2016.

In an uninspiring coaching search led by interim athletics director Mike Perrin, Pierce was the eventual choice after numerous other coaches signed contract extensions.

Following a rebuilding season under Pierce in 2017, Texas made an unexpected run to the College World Series in 2018 behind a spectacular season from Kody Clemens before collapsing in 2019, finishing last in the Big 12 and 26-26 overall.

Pierce steadied his tenure with a strong start in the COVID-shortened 2020 season and continued that success in 2021 with a 50-17 campaign that ended with a deep run in the College World Series stymied by Mississippi State, the eventual champions.

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Facing massive expectations in 2022 with a preseason No. 1 ranking, the Longhorns struggled with a difficult schedule and the loss of budding star pitcher Tanner Witt to Tommy John surgery, tying for fifth in the conference with a 14-10 record. Texas did make it to the College World Series, but lost both games, prompting Pierce to revamp his coaching staff, firing pitching coach Sean Allen and moving assistant Philip Miller into an administrative role.

Although Texas tied for first place in the Big 12, Pierce won fewer games in 2023, a season that ended in heartbreaking fashion in the Palo Alto Super Regional when right fielder Dylan Campbell lost a fly ball in the lights at Sunken Diamond.

Pierce responded by making another change on his staff, dumping pitching coach Woody Williams after one season and taking over that role himself. But when the pitching staff struggled, including Big 12 Preseason Pitcher of the Year Lebarron Johnson Jr., Texas limped to a 36-24 record, suffered embarrassing midweek losses to Texas A&M-Corpus Christi and UTRGV, and then lost four of five games in the postseason, further signs of regression under Pierce, who also saw Miller depart the program during the season.

Without an assistant to scapegoat for the state of the Longhorns pitching staff, Pierce was left to take the fall himself.

According to the Houston Chronicle, an off-field altercation involving Pierce and one of his players contributed to Del Conte’s decision:

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An ugly incident with one of his pitchers after Texas’ early exit from the Big 12 Tournament in Arlington led to Pierce’s visit before the school’s Human Resources department and likely sealed his fate.

The turnover on the coaching staff, Pierce’s lack of success in the NCAA transfer portal, and the looming move to the SEC, the nation’s best baseball conference, also factored into Pierce’s firing despite the three trips to the College World Series and three conference titles during his eight-year tenure at Texas.

Del Conte is expected to move quickly to hire Pierce’s replacement with the transfer portal open and the MLB Draft looming next month.



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North Texas middle school closes after a norovirus outbreak

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North Texas middle school closes after a norovirus outbreak


A middle school in the Eagle Mountain-Saginaw ISD is closed Friday after an outbreak of norovirus.

According to the school district, they closed Creekview Middle School in Fort Worth on Friday to sanitize and clean the building. The district said they plan on reopening the school on Monday.

The district said children started to get sick on Tuesday with what appeared to be a stomach virus and that on Wednesday it spread to a larger group.

EMSISD said they reached out to the Tarrant County Public Health Department and that they recommended disinfecting and cleaning the school on Wednesday night and reopening the next day.

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More cases continued to be reported on Thursday, so the public health department then recommended that they clean again and close the campus on Friday.

Parents were notified of the district’s decision on Thursday afternoon.

The district has not said how many students and staff were sickened in the outbreak.

Officials with Children’s Medical Center said that because norovirus is highly contagious and resistant to many common hand sanitizers, it presents a unique challenge for families.

The hospital says hand sanitizer isn’t enough and recommends thorough hand washing with soap and water. They also recommend parents keep their children home for a full 48 hours after symptoms stop to prevent further outbreaks.

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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says there are approximately 2,500 norovirus outbreaks in the United States each year and that they are most common from November through April. For further tips on preventing the spread of norovirus, visit the CDC.



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Trump heads to Texas, where 3 friends are battling it out in the Senate Republican primary

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Trump heads to Texas, where 3 friends are battling it out in the Senate Republican primary


WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump just can’t seem to choose among friends in the Texas Senate Republican primary.

So when he travels to the state on Friday for his first post- State of the Union trip, where he plans to promote his energy and economic policies, Trump will have all three candidates in the competitive race join him — just days before his party casts ballots in the primary race.

Sen. John Cornyn is battling for his fifth term and is being challenged by state Attorney General Ken Paxton and Rep. Wesley Hunt in a primary fight that has become viciously personal. And all three men, missing the coveted endorsement from Trump, have been trying to highlight their ties to him as they ramp up their campaigning ahead of Tuesday’s vote.

For his part, Trump will be seeking to ride the message of his State of the Union address from Tuesday, where he declared a return to economic prosperity and a more secure America — two centerpiece arguments for Republicans as they campaign to keep their congressional majorities this fall.

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Trump’s hesitation to endorse in the Texas Senate primary speaks to the tricky dynamics of the race.

Cornyn is unpopular with a segment of Texas’ GOP base, in part for his early dismissiveness of Trump’s 2024 comeback campaign and for his role in authoring tougher restrictions on guns after the 2022 school shooting in Uvalde, Texas. But Senate GOP leadership and allied groups see Cornyn as the stronger general election candidate, in light of a series of troubles that have shadowed Paxton.

Paxton beat impeachment on fraud charges in 2023, and has faced allegations of marital infidelity by his wife, state Sen. Angela Paxton.

Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, right, is joined by former Texas Gov. Rick Perry, left, during a campaign stop in Austin, Texas, Tuesday, Feb. 17, 2026. Credit: AP/Eric Gay

Senate Majority Leader John Thune and South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, have urged Trump to endorse Cornyn. They and allied campaign groups argue that the seat would cost the party hundreds of millions more to defend with Paxton as the candidate.

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“It is a strong possibility we cannot hold Texas if John Cornyn is not our nominee,” Scott told Fox News on Wednesday.

Hunt, a second-term Houston-area representative, was a later entry to the race, but claims a kinship with Trump, having endorsed him early in the 2024 race. Hunt campaigned regularly for Trump and earned a prime-time speaking slot at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee.

If no candidate reaches 50% in Tuesday’s primary, the top two finishers will advance to a May 26 runoff.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and Rep. Troy Nehls, R-Texas,...

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and Rep. Troy Nehls, R-Texas, arrive before President Donald Trump delivers the State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress in the House chamber at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, Feb. 24, 2026. Credit: AP/Allison Robbert

Cornyn’s campaign and a half-dozen allied groups have poured more than $63 million into the race since last fall, chiefly trying to slow Paxton but recently attacking Hunt in an effort to keep him from making it to the runoff.

Earlier this month, Trump feinted toward weighing in on the race when he said he was taking “a serious look” at endorsing in the Texas primary. He has since reaffirmed his neutrality.

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Still, you wouldn’t know it from watching TV in Texas. Cornyn has been airing ads since last year touting his support for Trump’s agenda, even though his relationship with the president has been cool at times. Paxton and Hunt both have ads airing now featuring them standing with Trump.

“I like all three of them, actually. Those are the toughest races. They’ve all supported me. They’re all good. You’re supposed to pick one, so we’ll see what happens. But I support all three,” Trump said earlier this month.

The GOP battle comes as Democrats have a contested primary of their own in Texas between state Rep. James Talarico, a self-described policy wonk who regularly quotes the Bible, and progressive favorite U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett.

Trump hasn’t been shy about wading into other contested Republican primaries in the state. Parts of Corpus Christi fall within Texas’ 34th congressional district, where former Rep. Mayra Flores is fighting to reclaim her seat against the Trump-endorsed Eric Flores. (The two are not related.) The winner of the primary will face off against Democratic Rep. Vicente Gonzalez, long a target of the GOP, whose district was redrawn to make it easier for a Republican to win.

Eric Flores will be at the Trump event at the Port of Corpus Christi, which technically is located in a neighboring district.

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Elsewhere in the state, the president has also endorsed Rep. Tony Gonzales, who is fighting calls from his own party to resign from Congress after reports of an alleged affair with a former staffer who later died after she set herself on fire. Gonzales is refusing to step down and has said that there will be “opportunities for all of the details and facts to come out” and that the stories about the situation do not represent “all the facts.”

Gonzales is facing a primary challenge from Brandon Herrera, a gun manufacturer and gun rights influencer who Gonzales defeated by fewer than 400 votes in their 2024 runoff. The White House did not return a request for comment on Thursday on whether Trump stands by his endorsement of Gonzales.



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Man sentenced to 15 years in Texas crash that killed founding member of The Chicks

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Man sentenced to 15 years in Texas crash that killed founding member of The Chicks


EL PASO, Texas (AP) — A man has been sentenced to 15 years in prison after admitting his reckless driving caused a head-on collision in rural West Texas that killed Laura Lynch, a founding member of the country music group now known as The Chicks, prosecutors said.

Domenick Chavez, 33, pleaded guilty to manslaughter in connection with Dec. 22, 2023, crash in Hudspeth County, according to a news release Tuesday from El Paso County District James Montoya, who also oversees nearby Hudspeth County.

The news release said Chavez was driving a truck westbound when he tried to pass four vehicles on a two-way undivided highway and collided head-on with Lynch’s eastbound truck. Lynch, 65, of Dell City, was trapped in her vehicle and died. Prosecutors said Chavez was traveling between 106 mph and 114 mph.

Prosecutors said alcohol wasn’t a factor in the crash but that Chavez was driving on a suspended license, which had been revoked due to his failure to comply with DWI-related surcharges and penalties from convictions in 2014 and 2017.

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Lynch, along with Robin Lynn Macy and sisters Martie Maguire and Emily Strayer, formed The Dixie Chicks in the late 1980s. Lynch and Macy eventually left the band and Natalie Maines joined the sisters. The trio hit commercial fame with their breakthrough album “Wide Open Spaces” in 1998 and have won 13 Grammys. In 2020, the band changed its name to The Chicks.

In a social media post after Lynch’s death, The Chicks said Lynch had “infectious energy and humor” and was “instrumental” in the band’s early success.



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