By Tom Waddill
The Huntsville Item
HUNTSVILLE — Shane Martin did not have to look far to find the guy who will fill his old shoes with the Hornets football program.
Huntsville’s new head football coach promoted David Cooper, one of his hard-working assistants, to defensive coordinator, the job Martin held for the past two seasons.
Cooper, 32, worked with the defensive line the last three years under former head coach Mitchell Coey, the athletic director for Huntsville ISD.
“I’m very fortunate, and our kids are very fortunate to have a quality guy like coach Cooper who can step right in and take over our defense,” Martin said late last month. “Coach Cooper is a student of the game. He puts a lot of time and effort into game preparation. He did that as an assistant and I know he’ll do it as a coordinator.
“That was a pretty easy choice, turning the defense over to him.”
Cooper said he’s excited about his new job. He knows there will be more pressure, but Cooper said he’ll have help from his new boss and all of the coaches on Huntsville’s varsity staff.
“I feel very fortunate to be able to work under someone like Shane, the guy I learned this defense from,” Cooper said. “It’s going to be a big transition, I guess, making adjustments during games. I’ve been in on those decisions in the past, but the great thing is our defensive staff is not changing. We’re used to working together and that’s going to help.”
Martin believes he has a first-rate staff that is willing to put in the extra hours it takes to be successful.
Huntsville shared a district championship with rival Brenham last fall, and Martin thinks he has a group of coaches, with coordinators Kane Harris (offense) and Cooper leading the way, who are committed to keeping the program on top
“It’s a team effort,” Martin said. “It’s a group effort on both sides of the ball. ... The beauty of this staff is we all get along, and we all understand how it all works.”
Cooper added, “We’re graduating a lot from last year’s team. We’re going to be young, but we’ve got a lot of really good kids in the program. We’ve got the talent to still win a lot of ballgames.”
Like Coey, Martin and others on the Hornets varsity football staff, Cooper worked his way up from Mance Park Middle School, where he began his coaching career as an offensive and defensive line coach five years ago. He became co-athletic coordinator at Mance Park two years later, and for the past three seasons he has coached defensive line at Huntsville High School.
Roman Salas, who has worked with interior linemen the last two years, will add defensive ends to his coaching duties. Lute Croy, who coaches offensive linemen, will also help on the defensive side. Jason Elliott is moving over from receivers to coach cornerbacks in the coming season.
“There was a number of people on the staff who could have taken over and run our defense,” Martin said. “But when you put together a staff, everything has to fit and everything has to be in place. Moving Cooper there was good because he earned it and he deserved it.”
