The town of Celina, Texas, was rocked last week by revelations that an assistant middle school football coach had been arrested for allegedly recording boys undressing in the locker room.
As reported by CBS News, the arrested individual's father, longtime and highly decorated Celina High School football coach Bill Elliott, addressed a packed school board meeting Thursday night, speaking publicly for the first time since his son, Caleb Elliott, was charged with child pornography offenses. The 26-year-old was a teacher and assistant coach at a Celina middle school when he allegedly recorded secret videos of male students.
"I want you to know how sorry I am, and my family is," Elliott said. "I understand your anger. I understand your frustration. I get it — it's horrible.
"It's a mar on our family, on our name, on this program, on this town. And I'm very sorry for that."
The elder Elliott, who led Celina High School to a perfect record and state champion season in 2024, said he wants justice to be served in the criminal case and emphasized his commitment to the community.
"I want justice to be done, and justice will be done," he said, adding of his son, "He will face the consequences that will come to him. He will. That's the way it will be."
"I've spent 33 years of my life here. My family's poured into this place," Elliott continued. "I love our kids. I love watching our kids play."
The speech drew applause from those assembled, and friends say they hope it goes a long way toward restoring confidence in the coach and the school community, CBS News reported.
"I'm amazed that he can do that," said Choc Christopher, a former Celina school board member and Elliott's next-door neighbor. "Most people cannot do what he did. But that's just who he is. It was the ultimate display of courage, of his integrity. I mean, he's devastated about what has happened.
"He could have stayed at home. He could have been quiet. But that's just not the kind of man he is."
According to NBC affiliate WFAA in Dallas, two sets of parents identifed themselves publicly as the whistleblowers who exposed Caleb Elliott. They told WFAA that Elliott made invasive recordings of their sons in the team locker room using a cell phone.
"The courage it took for our boys to come forward and speak the truth about what happened in the locker room—I want to begin by expressing deep gratitude to these young men for their bravery," a parent said.
It is not yet clear how many victims there may be or if there were prior incidents that went unchecked.
Republican state representative Jeff Leach, who represents part of Collin County, said the state is monitoring the situation closely. "If there's anything that's been hidden—if anyone was hired who shouldn't have been hired—we're going to find out all of that," Leach said.
School board members told Thursday's meeting they would hire a third-party investigator to determine whether the alleged issues involving Caleb Elliott were isolated or systemic, WFAA reported.
Before the meeting, Caleb Elliott resigned from his teaching position and surrendered his teaching license.
