Mountaineers conducting interviews this week

Published 8:00 pm Saturday, February 13, 2016

North Murray High School’s football coaching search is going to take a little bit longer than originally anticipated. North Murray athletic director Roger Rainey told The Daily Citizen on Feb. 3, when the school dismissed former coach David Gann, that he hoped to make a hire by the time the school’s winter break began on Monday.

However, he has since learned that the job must be posted for two weeks before a hire can be made, which means the earliest a decision would come is Thursday.

“We had to open it up until Thursday, the 18th,” Rainey said. “We’ve had over 50 applicants and we hope to narrow it down to four or five and begin conducting interviews next week. We will finish those interviews by the 19th, return to school the following week and present a candidate to the superintendent at that time.”

Rainey said that more than 25 coaches applied within the first days of the job coming open and that there are applicants from six different states. Rainey, principal Dr. Maria Bradley and assistant principal Brett Dotson will be the three-person committee tasked with choosing a coach.

While he admitted that he isn’t going to rule out any candidate at this time, Rainey does have an idea of what he would like in a coach.

“I’d like to have somebody with head coaching experience,” Rainey said. “I am not going to rule out a coordinator though. We’d also like someone familiar with our area. Athletes around here are not the same kind of athletes as other parts of the state, so someone familiar with our personnel would be good. If we can find an applicant in the northwest Georgia area, that’d be great. But there are lots of quality applicants.”

While he declined to mention specific applicants, Rainey did say that members of the current North Murray staff had submitted themselves for consideration.

The Mountaineers had two former head coaches on the defensive staff in 2015. Franco Perkins was the defensive coordinator this season at North Murray and was the head coach at Rome from 2010-2014. The Wolves were 29-23 under Perkins.

Houston White coached safeties for North Murray last season and was formerly the head coach at Notre Dame High School in 2000 and 2001, and then later at Hixson High School from 2007-12. Hixson’s best record during those years was 4-6. White has also previously coached as an assistant at Lakeview-Fort Oglethorpe High School.

North Murray dismissed Gann after four seasons as coach. The Mountaineers, which began playing varsity football in 2010, were 18-22 during that time after having won just one game in their first two seasons.