Former Southlake mayor John Huffman has officially stepped down from his position on the board at the Texas Home Educators Sports Association. This move comes after the organization faced intense scrutiny regarding its decision to hire a registered sex offender as a high school baseball coach. It is a situation that feels completely avoidable, yet it highlights a massive breakdown in oversight and responsibility.
The individual at the center of this controversy is Tommy Whiteman. Whiteman was a standout baseball player at the University of Oklahoma and was even drafted by the Houston Astros in 2000. He spent seven seasons in the minor leagues before his professional career wrapped up in 2006. However, his life took a dark turn four years later when he was arrested and charged with online solicitation of a minor.
According to BroBible, Whiteman had communicated with and distributed sexually explicit material to an undercover police officer who was posing as a 14-year-old girl. Because of this, he remains on the Texas sex offender registry as a moderate danger to the community, with a possibility of re-offending, until 2030.
That ‘rescued from sin’ line was a shady way to hide a crime
Despite this history, Whiteman found himself in charge of young athletes. He served as head baseball coach for the Texas Home Educators Sports Association, a Christ-centered organization for homeschoolers. Even more concerning, Whiteman and his wife operate Redemptive Sports, a private training facility where he continues working with children. This alarming situation mirrors the case of a high school basketball coach who faces over 30 charges for deviant acts involving a student.
The hiring process at the Texas Home Educators Sports Association is where things get truly messy. John Huffman, who previously served as the mayor of Southlake and has a background as an attorney and small business owner, was on the board alongside his wife, Elizabeth. They were responsible for overseeing the organization’s basketball and baseball programs, and they personally approved the hire of Whiteman.
To make matters worse, the association required parents to sign a waiver that cleared their children to play for a coach who was a registered sex offender, though the document conveniently left out that specific detail. It is a classic example of an organization trying to cover its tracks with vague legal language. Since then, the remaining members of the board have attempted to deflect all blame onto the Huffmans.
In a letter released by the association to announce the departure of the couple, the organization completely sidestepped any real accountability. Instead of offering a sincere apology, the letter leaned heavily on faith-based language to minimize the severity of the situation. They even tried to justify the hire by pointing out that it did not technically violate the law regarding Whiteman’s status as a registered sex offender.
This response is incredibly frustrating for anyone who values the safety of children. It raises some major red flags about the rest of the board. How could the other members of the board fail to perform their own background checks before bringing someone like Whiteman on board? It is also difficult to believe that the rest of the leadership team was unaware of the existence of that waiver or the reasoning behind it.
By blaming the Huffmans alone, the organization is failing to address the systemic failures that allowed this to happen in the first place. Under no circumstances should a registered sex offender be coaching a high school baseball team. It does not matter if the police cleared him for a specific role or if parents signed a waiver. The primary responsibility of any youth sports organization is the protection of its participants.
While Tommy Whiteman and his wife are no longer coaching the baseball and pom teams, and the Huffmans have resigned from the board, many are left wondering if this is truly enough.
Published: Apr 28, 2026 04:45 pm