By Gene Schallenberg
Staff Reporter
LOS ANGELES —
Since the position of head football coach became available late last week, the New Waverly ISD office has been bombarded with interest from individuals wanting to take over the Bulldogs football program.
“We’ve had a lot of interest thus far and we knew we would,” Superintendent Clay Webb said following the New Waverly ISD School Board meeting Monday night. “We’re wanting to make a decision quickly, but we also want to go about it with a deliberate speed because we want to make sure that we get the right person.”
Webb and school board members talked for nearly an hour behind closed doors about personnel changes at the junior high and the high school as well as how they would conduct the hiring of football coach with summer practice beginning in just two weeks.
Webb and trustees finalized plans about how they would find their next football coach.
“We’ll continue to accept applications and resumes through Friday afternoon,” Webb said. “After we screen all the resumes, we’ll come up with a list of eight candidates of who we want to interview. We’ll hold those interviews on July 27th and 29th. Then on that Thursday, we’ll have an action item on our agenda of approving someone for our football coach vacancy.
“We’re keeping an open mind in regards to who we want to hire. We’ve got a tremendous program and we only want to go one way and that way is forward.”
Webb admitted that with the constant stream of resumes and telephone calls that are pouring in, it was difficult to identify potential finalists. He did confirm that a few coaches who are already on staff — head baseball coach Tommy Bohannon, head boys basketball coach Bill Goffney and head track and field coach Garey Peveto — have submitted resumes for the position.
“We don’t even know if we already have who we’re looking for right here,” Webb said. “We’ve got a few coaches here who have already shown interest.”
If Bohannon, Goffney or Peveto were to be hired, Webb doesn’t foresee looking for new coaches in their respective sports.
“We’re not looking to shake the world up,” Webb added. “We’ve got a coach who helped us win three championships at the state meet, another one who brought a team to the state tournament for the third year in a row and one who brought the baseball team to the regional finals. It wouldn’t make sense to take them off those assignments. Those extra responsibilities come with the job.”
Looking ahead to the next week and a half where the trustees and Webb will be reviewing applications and resumes, the hiring process will be conducted rather quickly.
“We know it’s not the most convenient time, but we feel that we have a premier program on our hands.,” Webb added.
“We’ve worked hard to get where we are and we want to keep things going like they have the past couple of years. We want to hire the person we think best fits what we’re trying to do here and that’s to make our kids the best they can be.”
