Staying close to home has put Clint Schnell in the ideal position to take over at Randall High.
Canyon ISD on Wednesday afternoon officially announced that Schnell would be the next head coach for Randall’s boys basketball program, only the third one in the school’s 39-year history. Schnell takes over for Trevor Johnson, who left after two years following the end of the 2025-26 school year to become superintendent at Claude ISD.
Randall didn’t have to go far to find Schnell, in fact, just a few miles up Bell Street. Schnell spent last season as an assistant to veteran coach Jason Pillion for the Amarillo High boys basketball team.
When it was announced that Johnson was leaving Randall’s bench, Schnell couldn’t turn down an opportunity to be a head coach again after two previous head coaching stints with large schools in the Metroplex.
“For the reputation Randall basketball has I wanted to do it,” Schnell said. “I was very happy being an assistant at Amarillo High and the kids, parents and coach Pillion were great, but ultimately I didn’t feel like my high school head coaching career was over. I wanted to come back and be a head coach and I felt Randall presented a great opportunity to do that.”
Before coming to Amarillo High, Schnell spent most of his coaching career in the Metroplex. He’d been a head coach at Arlington Martin and Coppell.
That experience is what tilted the odds to get the job in Schnell’s favor, according to CISD athletic director John Peterson.
“Just his leadership with the way he’s been in the past as a coach in the Metroplex has shown he can coach at the highest level in 6A,” said Peterson of Schnell. “He’s coached some quality young men. The way he communicates with players and instructs discipline was something that was an absolute no-brainer for us.”
It didn’t hurt that Schnell was familiar with the Texas Panhandle long before he even spent a year at Amarillo High. He’s a native of Spearman and wanted to return to his roots.
“I grew up in Spearman and my father’s a rancher up there,” Schnell said. “That’s where I played high school sports and was born and raised. Getting to come back to the Panhandle as like coming back home. The kind of people in the Panhandle are great so getting to combine my career and my heritage was an opportunity I couldn’t pass up.”
Schnell taking over officially ends a long basketball era at Randall. Johnson had been an assistant for a decade before taking over fulltime for the late Leslie Broadhurst in 2024.
Broadhurst, who’d been Randall’s head coach since the school opened in 1988, had his most successful seasons in his last two, as the Raiders made the Class 4A state tournament both years.
While the Raiders were a program in transition last season, Randall still proved to be an attractive opening when it was announced.
“Since I’ve been the athletic director at Canyon ISD, this has been the most applications we’ve had for a head coaching job,” said Peterson, who’s been in the post over two years. “Randall basketball has a very strong foundation and history and that was something and that was something (Schnell) made prevalent in his interview process and he understands the past history of it but he wants to put his stamp on it. That’s something which really separated him from other people.”
Schnell has a respect for Randall’s tradition and that’s a big reason he went after the job, along with wanting to add to that tradition.
“The most attractive thing about Randall is the success it’s had in the past along with the amazing support of the administration,” Schnell said. “There are great kids parents here. It’s a known program in the state of Texas and definitely here in the Panhandle. Knowing that it was too good to pass up.”
In a domino effect, it was announced that Schnell will be replaced on the AHS boys staff by another coach with head coaching experience. Chris Sumrall, who had successful head coaching stints leading the Wellington then the Tascosa girls, will join Pillion’s staff.