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Bill Elliott retires as Celina ISD coach as district says investigation clears it of wrongdoing

Celina High School won the football championship in 2024.
Yfat Yossifor
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四虎影院
Bill Elliott, who led the Celina ISD high school football team to win the state championship in 2024, retired shortly after the district says an independent investigation cleared it of wrongdoing.

Celina ISD鈥檚 high school football coach announced his retirement soon after the district shared an independent investigator found no evidence supporting allegations the district was aware of a former teacher鈥檚 sexual misconduct.

Bill Elliott, the district鈥檚 athletic director and high school football coach, was placed on leave while an independent investigator looked into sexual misconduct allegations against his son, Caleb Elliott. The team won the state football championship in 2024.

The Celina ISD school board trustees had a personnel matter related to Caleb Elliott, who resigned from his position as the eighth-grade football coach at Moore Middle School after he was arrested, on the agenda for a closed meeting on Monday but didn鈥檛 take action on it. The next morning, the district sent an emailed statement that Bill Elliott was retiring.

鈥淥ver the past 33 years, I have been blessed with the opportunity to create lasting memories and build meaningful relationships that I will carry with me for the rest of my life,鈥 Bill Elliott said in the statement. 鈥淚 am deeply grateful to Celina ISD for the support and trust extended to me throughout my career, and I wish the district continued success in all its future endeavors.鈥

Caleb Elliott is facing federal and state charges for allegedly recording students changing in the boys locker room. He鈥檚 also facing multiple lawsuits 鈥 and thanks to a new state law that went into effect September 1, so is Celina ISD, the school district that employed Elliott.

The lawsuits accuse Celina ISD of multiple cover ups of Caleb Elliott鈥檚 misconduct, including allegations that the district moved Caleb Elliott from the high school to the middle school after he had an inappropriate relationship with a male student. The district said in the independent investigator it hired to look into the allegations, attorney Giana Ortiz, found no evidence of that. Elliott鈥檚 attorney, Gregg M. Gibbs, told the relationship with the former student began after he graduated when he was 19. Gibbs hasn鈥檛 answered multiple requests for comment from 四虎影院.

The district also denies allegations that Caleb Elliott placed cameras in the locker room, something the Celina Police Department also said it found no evidence of in its investigation, which was concluded in November.

鈥淣o witness had knowledge of alleged concerns about Caleb Elliott鈥檚 presence and/or conduct in the locker room before October 2, 2025,鈥 the district鈥檚 statement said.

Attorneys for 17 of the families suing Caleb Elliott and the district over the sexual misconduct allegations told reporters at a press conference last month another football coach at Moore Middle School confronted Caleb Elliott about his behavior before a student reported it to the school principal in October. The district said its independent investigator found no evidence of the confrontation.

Quentin Brogdon, one of the attorneys representing those 17 alleged victims, said at the press conference Celina ISD is deflecting blame onto Caleb Elliott.

鈥淭he district's credibility on what it knew about this sexual predator and when it knew it is like a carton of sour milk,鈥 Brogdon said. 鈥淵ou don't have to take more than the first sip of it to know the entire carton is bad.鈥

A redacted report of the investigations鈥 findings is expected to be shared with the public by the end of this week.

Got a tip? Email Caroline Love at clove@kera.org.

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Caroline Love is the Collin County government accountability reporter for 四虎影院 and a former Report for America corps member.

Previously, Caroline covered daily news at Houston Public Media. She has a master's degree from Northwestern University with an emphasis on investigative social justice journalism. During grad school, she reported three feature stories for 四虎影院. She also has a bachelor's degree in journalism from Texas Christian University and interned with 四虎影院's Think in 2019.