We're currently at mid-January, and right now there are only 10 open head coaching jobs on the market. Thus far there have only been 23 jobs that have come open, and that includes completely 2 new jobs showing up on the market in both the varsity program being started at Great Crossing, Scott County's new high school, and in the new head coach for the JV program being formed at Wolfe County. The Wolves are calling their program a "start-up" with the intent of joining KHSAA varsity play for the 2021 season.

 

23 open jobs is fairly notable in that over the course of the previous four off-seasons, there have been an average of 43 jobs that have come open each year, with a high water mark of 54 jobs in the off-season between the 2014 and 2015 football season. The number of open jobs has trended down in the last few years, but regardless, 23 open jobs would seem like a pleasingly low number.

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The bigger moves we've seen thus far since the 2018 regular season wrapped up include:

 

 

Larry French - Longtime football coaching legend Larry French announced in mid-December that he was stepping down as the head coach for the Southwestern Warriors, and soon after there were rumors circulating that he was eyeing the open job at Middlesboro, who had relieved Zach Massengill of his duties as head coach for the Yellowjackets after 5 years as their skipper. Great Crossing reportedly was also in talking with Larry French and invited him to interview, but French opted instead to accept the position as head coach at Middlesboro.

 

Ethan Atchley - Ethan Atchley, who took over a struggling Lexington Christian Academy team for the 2014 football season, managed to get the Eagles back to the best form they've seen since Paul Rains' days as head coach. Atchley was then announced as the new head coach for the Bullitt East Chargers just after the new years, after the Chargers' head coach Mark Sander stepped down in mid-November.

 

David Jones - Coach Jones has made big, big improvements in his three seasons as head football coach for the Phelps Hornets. As a Belfry standout and a collegiate player for the Kentucky Wildcats, Jones took over as head coach for a Phelps program that was grasping at straws. He was able to improve the team enough to produce 5-5 records in both of his last two seasons. That may not look like much, but when it comes to a small eastern Kentucky program like Phelps, that is a huge improvement. It's likely that improvement that moved the administrators at Bourbon County High School to hire Coach Jones on as the head coach for the Colonels after they let John Hodge go as head coach back in November.

 

Dan Woolley - Coach Woolley was named the head football coach at Scott High School in Taylor Mill for the 2012 football season. It was his first head coaching job, and Woolley essentially created the Eagle's program as we know it today. After years of being a NKY doormat, he turned the program around to have their first ever string of winning seasons, and even a notable playoff run, going 10-3 and having their 4A season finally ended after their first ever appearance in the football quarterfinals. Coach Woolley, who is in his late 30s, stepped down as head coach in mid-November to be able to spend time with his young family. The Scott head coaching job is still open, and as it stands, is one of the more attractive coaching positions available in the state, along with the Southwestern and Great Crossing jobs.

 

Bryson Warner - Bryson made a name for himself as the former Ryle head football coach, but was effectively run off by the parents and administrators at Ryle after struggling losing to Boone County in the second round of the 2011 playoffs, and then having two bad seasons in 2012 and 2013. After joining coach Eddie Eviston's coaching staff at Covington Catholic for the 2017 and 2018 seasons Coach Warner has now returned at his alma mater Boone County, now as the head football coach for the Rebels.

 

Jesse Herbst - In another big "assistant coach hired as head coach" move, longtime Simon Kenton defensive coordinator Jesse Herbst has been hired away from his job for the Pioneers to take over as the head coach for his own alma mater, Dayton High School. Dayton has been a struggling program in recent years, and notably had to forfeit two games in the 2018 season because their injury-plagued team was unable to have sufficient enough numbers to even field a team for the games. Coach Herbst would appear to be a fantastic hire for the Greendevils, and hopefully will be able to bring some real hometown swagger back into the the Dayton football program.

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The list below is the current group of open head coaching jobs in the state, as of today, with Great Crossing, Scott, and Southwestern probably being the three most notable:

 

Atherton

Great Crossing

Green County

Muhlenberg County

Pineville

Russell County

Scott

Shawnee

Southwestern

Warren Central

 

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For some more perusing, feel free to give our open jobs threads a once over:

 

Open Jobs/Filled Jobs 2014-2015

Open Jobs/Filled Jobs 2015-2016

Open Jobs/Filled Jobs 2016-2017

 

Open Jobs/Filled Jobs 2017-2018

 

Open Jobs/Filled Jobs 2018-2019

Edited January 18, 20197 yr by Colonels_Wear_Blue

Muhlenberg county is missing. It has been open for about a month.

Muhlenberg county is missing. It has been open for about a month.

 

Muhlenberg has never had the job listed with the KHSAA, and it doesn't look like anyone took the initiative on starting a thread about the open job.

 

I went ahead and edited this article, accordingly, as well as starting an open job thread for that job in particular, and updating the master open jobs list for this year. Thanks for bringing it to my attention.

It looks like there are several schools enlisting the help of the KHSAA jobs site to find assistant football coaches and middle school football coaches as well:

 

Dixie Heights - (2) Varsity Assistant Coaches

Logan County - Middle School Head Coach

Logan County - Middle School Assistant Coach

Logan County - Varsity Assistant Coach (WR/DB)

Ludlow - Varsity Assistant Coach(es)

Ludlow - Middle School Head Coach

Tates Creek - Freshman Head Coach

Tates Creek - Varsity Assistant Coach(es)