Texas high school QB transfer granted eligibility after his family was targeted by racist graffiti
Former Allen High School (Texas) quarterback Mike Hawkins Jr. has been granted eligibility for the 2023-24 high school football season at Frisco Emerson High School following a district executive committee ruling.
The United Interscholastic League 3-5A District Executive Committee met Tuesday morning to discuss the eligibility status of Hawkins, a junior, and his brother, sophomore defensive back Maliek Hawkins, after both indicated their intentions to transfer across the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex. The committee ruled in the brothers' favor by a 5-1 vote.
The Hawkins brothers announced they planned to leave Allen High School after their family’s home was targeted with racist graffiti in late December when a racial epithet was spray-painted across their garage door.
Mike Hawkins Sr. — Mike and Maliek’s father, who played cornerback in the NFL and for the Oklahoma Sooners — told the Dallas Morning News that the family had listed their home in Allen for sale prior to the discovery of the racist vandalism with the intent to move within the DFW suburb, but said they planned to reconsider relocating to a different part of the area following the incident.
The family has since moved out of their Allen home.
“We have been through enough, we have been displaced from a financial position, all in the realm of trying to protect my family,” Mike Hawkins Sr. told the newspaper. “I feel like we are being punished when we have been the [party] that has been wronged. There’s no way I’m sitting here and having to go to a hearing to explain or fight for my son’s eligibility when this happened to us.”
Maliek and Mike Hawkins Jr. announced that they planned to transfer from Allen to Frisco Emerson, which competed at Class 5A as a first-year varsity program during the 2022 Texas high school football season, in January. The schools are located roughly five miles apart.
The 3-5A DEC arranged an eligibility hearing for both Hawkins brothers after Allen wrote that there was “conflict or dissatisfaction” between the school’s athletic and academic supervisors and the Hawkins family on their Previous Athlete Participation Forms.
While individual student-athletes and their previous schools are required to fill out the UIL’s Previous Athlete Participation Forms, an eligibility hearing will only be required if requested by a committee member within the new district.
“Allen ISD received a Previous Athlete Participation Form for a former student and responded in a truthful and accurate manner,” Allen ISD told the Dallas Morning News in a written statement on Feb. 8.
“Our District did not request or recommend an eligibility hearing, nor did the answers provided on the form automatically trigger an eligibility hearing per UIL rules. We wish the Hawkins family only the best in their future endeavors.”
If the ruling had been upheld, both brothers would be forbidden from playing varsity football at Frisco Emerson for the 2023 season and would be limited to playing JV football. The family could have appealed the District 3-5A executive committee’s ruling to the UIL’s state executive committee.
Per UIL transfer eligibility regulations, student-athletes who are deemed ineligible due to transferring schools for primarily athletic purposes are not allowed to participate in any UIL-sanctioned varsity sports events for one calendar year beginning on their first day at their new school.
Mike Hawkins Jr. — the Lone Star State’s top uncommitted QB recruit in the Class of 2024 and one of three four-star quarterback recruits in the class in the state of Texas — is regarded as the No. 14 overall quarterback prospect nationally in his recruiting class and spent the last two years as Allen’s varsity starter under center.
He’s also the top-ranked returning QB prospect in the DFW area, and was Allen’s highest-rated quarterback recruit since Kyler Murray, former Heisman Trophy winner and No. 1 overall NFL Draft pick.
In 25 career games during two years as the Eagles’ starting quarterback, Hawkins threw for 4,860 passing yards, 41 touchdowns and 10 interceptions on 309 of 513 passing and scrambled for 1,094 rushing yards and 11 touchdowns on 175 carries.
He was named the District 5-6A Newcomer of the Year after his sophomore season in 2021 and earned First Team All-District 5-6A honors as a junior this past season.
Hawkins was scheduled to announce his college commitment on Jan. 31, but rescheduled amid concerns regarding his eligibility status for the upcoming season.
He holds offers from 16 Division I college football programs including Alabama, Arkansas, Cincinnati, Michigan, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Penn State, TCU and Texas Tech among others.
Maliek Hawkins, who started at safety last year for Allen as a sophomore, has received offers from Arkansas and Texas State.
The Hawkins brothers helped the Eagles reach the bi-district round of the 2022 Class 6A Division I Texas high school football playoffs and a 7-4 finish under the leadership of first-year head coach Lee Wiginton.
Frisco Emerson reached the bi-district round of the Class 5A Division II UIL football playoffs during its first year of varsity football last fall, as head coach Kendall Miller helped lead the Mavericks to a 9-2 finish.
The precedent
Mike and Maliek Hawkins join a growing list of high-profile players from Allen to transfer elsewhere in the last two years.
They joined sophomore tight end Davon Mitchell, the country’s top tight end in the 2025 recruiting class, who announced his plans to transfer to Los Alamitos (CA) for his junior season.
Senior defensive lineman and five-star Texas A&M commit David Hicks Jr. (Katy Paetow), junior linebacker and four-star recruit Payton Pierce (Lucas Lovejoy), and senior quarterback and Louisiana Tech commit Evan Bullock (Anna) have all individually been granted immediate eligibility after transferring away from Allen to other UIL schools in recent years.
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Lead photo by Robbie Rakestraw
