Aldine ISD pending board approval next Tuesday night will make the move to bring a legend back home as they will name Duncanville QB Coach Odell James as the next head football coach and campus coordinator at Aldine Eisenhower.

Coach James who in his playing days earned legendary status leading Aldine MacArthur to a state title game appearance in 1993 as a sophomore and earning All-American honors as a senior. He played at the college level at Baylor for four years as well.

He started out as a member of the Baylor football operations staff once his playing days where concluded, he then became an assistant coach at South Oak Cliff where he served as co-OC under Jason Todd before going to Plano Prestonwood, where was apart of a state title team as an assistant coach. In 2018, James got a chance to become a head coach in South Texas when he took over at Class 2A Bruni where he went 4-6 in his one season leading the Badgers.

James, then in 2019 joined Hal Wasson’s staff at Corsicana where he coached during the 2019 and 2020 season. In 2021, James joined Reginald Samples’ staff at Duncanville where he became the QB Coach. Duncanville played for a 6A-Division I state title in 2021 falling to Galena Park North Shore and in 2022, the Panthers got their share of revenge beating North Shore to claim the title as James helped tutor a sophomore signal caller leading the Duncanville offense.

Coach James is just the latest in a number of assistants who have worked with Coach Samples to become head coaches in recent years, the list includes; Herman Johnson (Dallas Skyline, now a South Oak Cliff assistant), John Towels (Clear Brook, now head coach at Lewisville Hebron), Marcus Graham (Beaumont United, now an assistant at Port Arthur Memorial), Quincy Stewart (San Antonio Sam Houston), Judd Thrash (Lubbock Monterey), Eric Mims (Amarillo Palo Duro) and Leon Paul (Lancaster).