DeSoto built a dynasty in girls basketball with Andrea Robinson as the coach. Her likely replacement has been one of the most successful coaches in the state.
Jeffery Chatman from Cibolo Steele is expected to become the new DeSoto coach, a person close to the situation said Saturday. Chatman, who has a career record of 342-117, would take over a program that reached four state championship games in a five-year span from 2019 to 2023 and finished No. 2 in the nation in 2022.
Robinson led DeSoto to back-to-back Class 6A state titles in 2021 and 2022, was the state runner-up in 2019 and 2023 and reached a regional final and was nationally ranked in 2024. DeSoto will continue to play a national schedule outside of district play, the source said, just as it did with Robinson as coach.
Chatman was 277-63 in 10 seasons as Steele’s coach, winning at least 20 games every season and 30 or more games in three straight seasons from 2016 to 2018. He took Steele to the 6A state semifinals in 2016, when it finished 36-4, and the team was a regional finalist in 2022.
Steele reached the third round of the 6A playoffs the last two seasons, and this past season it nearly beat defending state champion San Antonio Clark in that round before losing 41-40 to finish 29-9. Chatman was hired at Cibolo Steele in May 2014 after spending two seasons at Lubbock Estacado, and he has also coached at Del Rio.
Robinson announced March 27 that she was leaving DeSoto to become the head girls coach at Oak Cliff Faith Family, a charter school in the UIL that is moving up to 5A in realignment and that plans to play a national schedule next season. Robinson said she believes Faith Family can become the top girls program in the country and that “the administration is committed to the mission of students first, so student-athletes will not lack any resources to maximize and develop their talents.”
DeSoto will have to replace four-star sophomore Kamora Pruitt, rated the 22nd-best player in the nation in the Class of 2026. Pruitt is transferring to Legion Prep Academy, an unconventional local private school that has no physical location and only online classes, but is building one of the best rosters in the country.
Legion Prep is also adding five-star sophomore Jacy Abii from UIL 5A state champion Frisco Liberty and junior Brooklyn Terry from 5A state runner-up Mansfield Timberview.
DeSoto still has four-star sophomore Amari Byles, rated the 15th-best player in the country. Byles was named a MaxPreps second-team sophomore All-American and the District 11-6A MVP after averaging 17 points, 9.5 rebounds, 2.5 blocks, 4.5 steals and 3 assists for a 27-6 team.
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