Friday, Aug. 15, 2008

New coaches pepper schools

The Mansfield school district’s athletic department announced the arrival of new coaches at the high school level.

In all, 31 new coaches will be in the classroom and out on the field this year, not including coaches that were promoted from within to a head coaching position. Of those 31, six were brought in as head coaches with the rest filling in at an assistant capacity.

At Legacy High School, the Broncos hired the least number of coaches with three. Lacy Beckler will coach girls basketball and volleyball, John Fischer will coach football and boys track, and Amber Wade will coach volleyball and girls soccer.

Timberview High School had nine new hires, and promoted Ike Holder to head baseball coach to replace Robert Owens. Crystal Blackwell will coach volleyball and girls track, Robert Button is the new head swimming coach, Lindsay Daniel will coach volleyball and softball, Adam Henke will be an assistant coach for football and boys track, Alfred Jones will coach cross country and boys basketball, Donya Mooney is the new head softball coach, Tanya Richards will coach girls basketball and girls track, Roderick Washington will coach football and softball and Matt Workman will coach boys basketball and football.

Summit had the highest number of new hires, with 10 new coaches now wearing Jaguar colors. Sonja Bustamenta will coach volleyball and girls basketball, Wat Harden will coach football and baseball, Chad Hudson will coach boys basketball and tennis, Jason Laningham will coach football and boys soccer, Becca Lief will coach volleyball and girls soccer, Greg Peters will coach girls basketball and girls golf, Michael Pope will coach boys basketball and girls track, John Warren will coach football and baseball, Carmen Woudstra will coach girls basketball and girls track, and Zachary Woodward will coach football and girls basketball.

Mansfield High hired nine new coaches, including four new head coaches. Brent Burke will coach football and baseball, Danny Caleron will be the head coach of cross country, Barry Campbell will coach football and be the head power-lifting coach, Jerry Edwards will coach football and power lifting, Curtis Enis will be the new head coach for girls track, Gary Gates will coach football and boys basketball, Kimberly Oliphant will coach girls basketball, Ashley Wann will coach volleyball and girls basketball and Trampas Wilson will be the new head coach for boys golf.

"We hosted a job fair to hire new coaches in the district, and a lot of those hires came from the job fair. It is a challenge to fill all the positions at the start of the year, but the fair really helped us out," said Debbie Weems, athletic director. "For the first time since we opened the second high school, we have been able to 100 percent fill our (coaching) staff. A lot of people don’t know the challenge of matching up coaching spots with teaching vacancies from the schools, and with us splitting up the schools every few years. It is a difficult, challenging task to fill up those spots, but for the first time since 2002 we can say that we have 100 percent filled our staffs."