Great stuff, CWB! I'd be interested in knowing the percentage of jobs that came open per year. It would also need to be pointed out that if Coach A leaves for Team B, one team had an unexpected opening, which can then snowball, and that can skew the numbers.

I would be interested to see what the denominator of total football-playing schools would be for each year. You think we have lost some independent schools throughout the years but you also have added not only new schools, but schools who existed who added football later than others.

Great work! Amazing list. I noticed Pineville and Pikeville changed coaches quite often. Pineville had a new coach almost every year there for a bit from what I noticed.

This whole body of work is amazing.  Thanks for the efforts @Colonels_Wear_Blue

I can’t help but to believe coaching stability is a MAJOR factor in building a winning program.   This data could be the proving ground for that theory.  

Belfry appears on the list twice, and only one was a coaching change in the traditional sense.  The last one was forced after Coach Haywood’s death and had nothing to do with lack of success.  

If anyone ever creates a comprehensive database of the data, It would be interesting to see a list of all teams from least to most coaching changes.   

2026 - (61)
Adair County - Cameron Dukes
Beechwood - Noel Rash
Berea - Lee Atkins
Bishop Brossart - Jacob Martin
Bracken County - Jeremy Ahrens
Campbell County - Rick Honaker
Carroll County - David Weston (Interim)
Caverna - Bryan Graves
Central - Mekale McKay
Christian County (New School) - Dustin Lopez
Conner - Chase Floyd
Cooper - Adam Begley
Doss - Ka'Saun Wall
Eminence - Garry McPeek
Fern Creek - Justin Nichols
Fort Knox - Nick Covin
Frankfort - Dwight Sutton, Jr.
Fulton County - Will Greer
Gallatin County - Nate Riggs
George Rogers Clark - Dane Damron
Greenwood - Tony Adams
Harlan - Frank Shope
Hazard - Jordan Amis
Holmes - Emanuel Golsby
Hopkins County Central - Adrian Stringer
Iroquois - Korrey Mattingly
Jeffersontown - Lonnie Oldham
John Hardin - Jeremy Harness
Leslie County - Eddie Melton
Letcher County Central - Brandon Haynes
Lynn Camp - Allen Mitchell
Magoffin County - Nathan Perkins
Male - Chase Porter
Mayfield - Stephen Hatchell
Mercer County - Travis Burns
Middlesboro - Hunter Adams
Montgomery County - Joe Chirico
Moore - Marcus Harris
Newport Central Catholic - Terry Brown
Ohio County - Brent Holsclaw
Paris - Cory Dumphord
Pike County Central - Christopher Slone
Pleasure Ridge Park - Keith May
Pulaski County - Josh Roberts
Rowan County - Allen Harris
Russellville - Will Griffin
Saint Xavier - Brian Landis
Scott - Dustin Trimnell
Seneca - Leander Peters (Interim)
Southern - Nelson Jackson
Southwestern - Mark Payne
Taylor County - William Harris
Todd County Central - George Riddick
Trigg County - Curtis Higgins
Trimble County - Chris Yates
Valley - Jamon Brown
Waggener - Chris Johnson
Warren Central - Kenny Davidson
Warren East - Jason Foley
Webster County - Jon Tarrance
Western Hills - Justin Franklin

Open Jobs/Filled Jobs 2025-2026

1978 - (28)
Bell County - Gary Hall
Campbell County - Don Shelton
Campbellsville - John Miller
Caverna - David Borders
Daviess County - Gary Keller
Dayton - Fred Mariani
Elizabethtown - Ronnie Myers
Elkhorn City - Jack Hall
Fairdale - Ted Leasor
Fairview - Rex Cooksey
Greenup County - John Younce
Harlan - Rick McCrary
Harrison County - Bob Jenkins
Laurel County - Charlie Bell
Lawrence County - Bob Howard
Lone Jack - Bruce Hendrickson
Lynn Camp - David Mitchell
Male - Garnett Phelps
Maysville - Bill Fooks
Mercer County - Larry French
Moore - Ted Leasor
Morgan County- Bruce Herdman
Pineville - Ted Taylor
Scott County - Jack Eicher
Trigg County - Danny Maxberry
Trimble County - Jim Hurst
Trinity - Dennis Lampley
Washington County - Jimmie Reed

1977 - (41)
Anderson County - Richard Hagy
Apollo - Fred Hamberg
Ashland - Mike Holtzapfel
Bath County - Gary Ramey
Bullitt Central - Mike Manley
Butler - Joe Hood
Casey County - Mike Finney
Caverna - Tom Jones
Doss - Dave Peak
Edmonson County - David Oney
Evangel Christian - Gary Brown
Fleming County - Ted Purcell
Fort Knox - Joe Jaggers
Glasgow - Charles Gupton
Grayson County - Vic Clark
Hazard - Colin Cox
Harlan - Don Fitzgerald
Holmes - Ed Jackson
Hopkinsville - Dan Sundberg
LaRue County - Phil Eason
Lone Oak - Fred Gibson
Lynch - Mac Quarles
Madisonville-North Hopkins - Steve Tweddell
Marion County - Lewis Cook
Metcalfe County - Mike Riffe
North Hardin - Bill Jenkins
Ohio County - John Kokas
Oldham County - Jim Kennedy
Owensboro - Don Netoskie
Owensboro Catholic - Bill Cox
Raceland - Roger Snyder
Seneca - Mike Egan
Shawnee - Eugene Johnson
Stuart - Jim Grant
Thomas Jefferson - Donnie Pope
Todd County Central - Bob Jones
Tompkinsville - Larry Moore
Trigg County - Jim Harrell
Warren Central - Dale Lindsey
Western - Don Williams
Woodford County - Duke Owen

On 5/4/2026 at 5:05 AM, Colonels_Wear_Blue said:

1979 - (18)
Bell County - Bruce Thompson
Bellevue - Fred Bernier
Caverna - Johnny Belcher
Conner - Bob Lewis
Cumberland - Ron Cain
Doss - Danny Dohn
Eastern - Dave Peak
Elizabethtown - Duke Owen
Kentucky Country Day - Malcolm Marler
Lynch - John Morgan
McLean County - John Miller
Owensboro Catholic - Jim Wilson
Valley - Hugh Dening
Wayne County - Jerry Turner
West Carter - Carter Bradshaw
Western - Steve Reed
Westport - Steve Bocko
Woodford County - Danny Cassity

If this is referencing the 1979 football season, then that would be the year Randy Reese succeeded Homer Goins as head coach at Paris High School.

On 8/24/2026 at 11:18 PM, Option Right said:

If this is referencing the 1979 football season, then that would be the year Randy Reese succeeded Homer Goins as head coach at Paris High School.

That's a great catch - I'll add him in on the list for the year.

The lists that the Courier-Journal and Herald-Leader put out each year were definitely their best effort, but especially in the pre-internet and pre-email age, it was a hell of a lot tougher to track all of that down, so they were relying on doing what leg-work they could do themselves with phone calls and "please contact us regarding any coaching changes" solicitations in their papers.

And with that being the year Coach Reese went to Paris, that means it's also the year that Coach Reese's former line coach Glen Wise took over as head coach at Ludlow.

20 minutes ago, Colonels_Wear_Blue said:

That's a great catch - I'll add him in on the list for the year.

The lists that the Courier-Journal and Herald-Leader put out each year were definitely their best effort, but especially in the pre-internet and pre-email age, it was a hell of a lot tougher to track all of that down, so they were relying on doing what leg-work they could do themselves with phone calls and "please contact us regarding any coaching changes" solicitations in their papers.

And with that being the year Coach Reese went to Paris, that means it's also the year that Coach Reese's former line coach Glen Wise took over as head coach at Ludlow.

That would be correct!