School board will meet to discuss process for hiring new teacher and head football coach

Salado ISD Trustees will meet Dec. 15 to discuss the process of hiring a new teacher and head football coach after Brent Graham told administrators that he will be resigning effective with the end of the school year.

Superintendent Michael Novotny posted the position on Nov. 16 and told Salado Village Voice that the interview process could begin in January.

This will be the first time that Salado will hire a head football coach who is not the athletic director of the schools.

Last December, the district separated the duties and hired Marvin Rainwater, a former principal in the Killeen school system, as the Salado athletic director to be athletic director in February.

Graham retained his position as head football coach for the 2015 season, where he went 1-10, 1-3 in district and qualified for the playoffs by beating Smithville Tigers in the final game of district. Salado lsot to Bellville 49-7 in the first round of the playoffs.

Graham won two games during his tenure at the helm of the Salado football program with an overall record of 2-29 in three seasons.

He followed Glenn Talbott who struggled through three seasons with a mark of 8-22. Most of those wins came in the second season when the Eagles went 5-5.

In the past six years, the Eagles have been 10-51, a big difference from the 2007 Salado Eagles who went 13-1 under head coach Jeff Cheatham, losing to defending champion Tatum in the state semi-final. Cheatham finished his sixth season at the head of the Round Rock Dragons football  program, going 8-3, 6-1 and losing to the #12 Westlake Chaparrels in the 6A, Div. 1 bi-district round 35-14.

While interviews may begin as early as January to fill the head football coach and teaching position, the contract itself will not begin until July 2016, according to Dr. Novotny.