Howard Feggins said he was shocked when Warren Central decided to move the football program in a different direction and replace him after one season.

 

Feggins said he was given a text to come in to meet and next thing he knew it was a two-hour evaluation on the decision to go in a different direction.

 

“Yeah 6-5 is not anything I would accept as a good season for me,” Feggins said. “I could use the excuse that we lost to Bowling Green, a team that has had great success here in the area, Owensboro, who lost in the state championship, Highlands, who won a state championship, DeSales, who won a championship, and unfortunately we got upset in the first round of the playoffs. Am I pleased? No. I will never be pleased as a head coach unless I won a state title. As a coach that is what I came here to do.”

 

Feggins shocked by short stint at Central - Bowling Green Daily News: Prep Sports

 

Was Coach Feggins given enough time at Warren Central? Does he have a point about the schedule? Other than the blowout loss to Highlands was the result really that bad?

 

Where does Warren Central go from here? Would you want to be the next Coach at WC knowing the last coach only got one year with that schedule?

 

Here are the the 2014 losses:

 

DeSales 12 to 37

Owensboro 26 to 28

Bowling Green 13 to 34

Highlands 0 to 43

Christian County 35 to 42

 

Did Warren Central make the right decision getting rid of Coach Feggins?

Without knowing any specifics I'd say they made the wrong decision. You have to give a coach more than one year.

Was his firing was about wins and losses? I find that hard to believe.

Was his firing was about wins and losses? I find that hard to believe.

 

I'm with ya! I find it hard to believe any High School program would fire a coach after one year based solely on wins and losses.

Bad deal - his son played at Highlands until this past season, right? A shame he missed out on a ring, given this news.

I've talked to both sides privately and feel comfortable in divulging that I don't think there is agreement on the reasons.

 

As for the wins and losses I do not believe that alone would be justification, and I don't believe that's what it was. If it played any part it was merely a mitigating factor. As for was it really that bad, the reality is that the end was hideous. As with last year most of us expected Highlands to win handily going in. Unlike last year this time it happened that way. Central looked helpless. I think most understood that. The Christian County game.... no one is understanding of that, and I believe that to include Feggins. No one felt that was good. I think better was expected from the Desales game as well. They showed quite well against Owensboro and Bowling Green. It just took them way too long to settle in against Bowling Green and they very easily could have beaten Owensboro. I think the main knock on the team's performance is that they did not beat anyone they weren't supposed to. There were four regular season games circled as potential losses and they fell in all four. Bourbon County was perhaps the only additional one that was iffy coming in that Central did win. But again, I think it's for reasons beyond that and I would only be speculating on things I've been told as to what those are.

 

What I will say again is that is is the situation I wanted to avoid and then some. Yes now a warning flag has been raised to applicants and worse the stability of the program has been further adversely affected. On the one hand if you think you made a mistake, then it takes courage to eat it right then and there (a la Billy G at UK). On the other, you have to do something real bad to get dismissed after one season and most of the time people are going to feel that's not enough time to determine.

 

It's no win for me to speculate more than that. I'm friendly with both sides and honestly support both sides. I just hate that this happened.

My Warren Central friends on Facebook are super surprisingly quiet about this one so that tells me they were happy to see him go. I'd love to know why though.

1.) Who was doing the evaluation, and were they qualified?

2.) What did he inherit (A winning or losing program)?

3.) What did the admin expect up front (Winning Games, Establishing Discipline, or the latter Your football player is disrupting the English class.)

4.) If it is a moral situation then it should have been dealt with in November, not now. This makes it look like there may be a coach or coaches out there they are interested in.

5.) I do not have a dog in this, but I have not seen anyone on here blasting him or the school, so with his sincerity in his statement would lead me to believe that he did not see this coming.

 

I am starting to wonder, with coaches getting out, is a sign that we are seeing that administrators just do not value what is learned in athletics anymore. As a past high school player, college player, and a coach at every level, that those children that are growing up fatherless will be losing more and more to this, and a society that feels that athletics is what is wrong with it. Football has given me everything I have, and has helped me to provide for a family of five, and without it I would have never made it. Those coaches that taught those lessons of life will never be forgotten, something that cannot be taught in the classroom.

2.) What did he inherit (A winning or losing program)?

5.) I do not have a dog in this, but I have not seen anyone on here blasting him or the school, so with his sincerity in his statement would lead me to believe that he did not see this coming.

 

Simply answering the two that I can answer:

 

2) Short answer is a winning program but not one that wins the big ones.

 

Long answser is he inherited a program that was coming off of a down year against a tough schedule, but a winning program with a history of modest success, much of it when they were/are away from Bowling Green. Prior to 2013 (the last year under the previous coach), Central had been to three straight region title games but lost each one. In the five years under Coach Rogers (2009-2013), the Dragons had reached at least the second round each time, again, with the three region runner-up finishes in the middle. Warren Central has not won a single region title in the six class system, owing heavily to the fact that they were trapped with Bowling Green and to a lesser extent Christian County. In all, the 5A Region 1 champion has played for the state title 7 of the 8 years under six classes, so it's not as if Central was losing to inferior teams. What he also inherited, however, was a program that has a dark cloud coming up on them at the lower levels, where redistricting and transfers have ravaged the talent pool. So a big portion of his hiring was tied to getting that system in order as well. He also inherited only one returning assistant coach, with the others either leaving to follow Coach Rogers, other opportunities, or not retained by Coach Feggins.

 

5) I 100% believe he didn't see this coming. I listened to his comments at the team banquet just nine days prior and also knew of several initiatives he was undertaking moving forward.

Simply answering the two that I can answer:

 

2) Short answer is a winning program but not one that wins the big ones.

 

Long answser is he inherited a program that was coming off of a down year against a tough schedule, but a winning program with a history of modest success, much of it when they were/are away from Bowling Green. Prior to 2013 (the last year under the previous coach), Central had been to three straight region title games but lost each one. In the five years under Coach Rogers (2009-2013), the Dragons had reached at least the second round each time, again, with the three region runner-up finishes in the middle. Warren Central has not won a single region title in the six class system, owing heavily to the fact that they were trapped with Bowling Green and to a lesser extent Christian County. In all, the 5A Region 1 champion has played for the state title 7 of the 8 years under six classes, so it's not as if Central was losing to inferior teams. What he also inherited, however, was a program that has a dark cloud coming up on them at the lower levels, where redistricting and transfers have ravaged the talent pool. So a big portion of his hiring was tied to getting that system in order as well. He also inherited only one returning assistant coach, with the others either leaving to follow Coach Rogers, other opportunities, or not retained by Coach Feggins.

 

5) I 100% believe he didn't see this coming. I listened to his comments at the team banquet just nine days prior and also knew of several initiatives he was undertaking moving forward.

 

Dragon Fire - I appreciate the information. Most of the time people only can speculate and it is not fair to the person that is not being retained or the school that is in the position that it is in. It does appear that they were interested in someone that did not apply that may now be available. However, cutting someone loose with a 6-5 record verses that schedule says to me that it was personal. In addition, following it would be difficult as well. Good Luck to Coach Feggins.

Just a very unfortunate ending, from both parties point of view.

After positions are filled, number of head football coaches at BG area high schools since 1996.

 

Warren East 7

Warren Central 6

Greenwood 4

South Warren 2 (played V FB for the first time in 2012)

Bowling Green 1

After positions are filled, number of head football coaches at BG area high schools since 1996.

 

Warren East 7

Warren Central 6

Greenwood 4

South Warren 2 (played V FB for the first time in 2012)

Bowling Green 1

 

Those are ugly statistics.

^^ And, this year looks to be the 6th straight year that the coaching vacancies across the state have been at 40 or more.

I know nothing about this specific situation, but I wonder (and I'd like to know DragonFire's thoughts): did Feggins try to make too many major changes too fast? I've seen multiple head coaches come into a program and in their first year, make big changes. Changes that alienated players, parents, boosters and administrators if for the simple reason, he wanted to do things differently. If that coach can pull off some big wins that first season, he's golden. But if he can't, he immediately faces a lot of criticism. If he's not a "local guy" and he doesn't handle the criticism smartly, he's pretty much done.

 

Might that have been the case with Feggins?