BigTuna6

Great hire for Walton! I imagine he’s going to bring a lot of what he learned from Coach Borchers over to Walton to continue the great tradition they already have. Excited for Coach Pence and Walton!

Per Twitter - Gary Pence has been named Head Coach at Walton Verona.

With Barth, this is true. He just wanted a shorter commute and the job opened at Ludlow. Barth is a good guy and there’s nothing behind the scenes here. Plus he wanted to dedicate more time to his kids. Gotta respect him for making a tough decision.

I imagine we’ll see some movement here sooner rather than later as Walton just hired their new AD.

I would like to see Gary Pence from Cooper finally get his opportunity (assuming he's interested). He has been coaching under Borchers at Cooper for I think around 10 years now. He was the Freshman head coach at Cooper for a while - recently moved to Varsity coaching QBs and as the Special Teams Coordinator. I know he was a finalist for the Ludlow job prior to Woody getting hired. He also has a degree in Special Education. Could have the opportunity to lock an in-school coach for a long time with Pence!

Tag in having Bob Burnett back at Cooper with the rest of the staff returning this year.. Sheesh!

Coach B was a huge asset to the Cooper program his first time through. There were a lot of young coaches on staff (myself included) that really just tried to absorb everything he said. Glad that he is back with the Jags! Hopefully he can help them finish the job this year and bring home a title!

I think for someone looking to be a first time head coach it could be a win-win. You can take the program over and even if you don’t win you now have head coaching experience. If you do win, you have taken a team that historically has underperformed and increased your stock even more. IMO I don’t see any established HCs going for this job though.

I think this could be an interesting job. Right now it’s brutal being in 5A but if there’s a chance they could eventually move back down to 4A this could be a good fit for someone.

Cooper always seems to miss those memos…

Congrats to Highlands on a great season. Very tough team. Congrats to Coach Borchers and the Cooper Jags! 2012 against Bowling Green was a tough fought loss, time to finish the job and come back with that hardware!!

Defense is very physical! Woody is doing a great job down in Ludlow and the kids have clearly bought in. Keep it going Panthers!

Will this game be at Southwestern or at Cooper?

With the team Randy currently has at Cooper (and only starting 3 seniors) I don't see him going anywhere. Being on staff with Randy the first 7 years of Cooper's existence, I can say that building the program from the ground up was a logistical nightmare at times. The experience would obviously be different as when Cooper was being built we were jumping directly into 6A ball and we had nothing but a practice field until literally halfway through summer. If there is one person I'd be reaching out to for advice though, it's Borchers. I feel like if anyone outside of him started that program, it might not be where it is today.

I’m taking Cooper 35-21.