Moody, Stowers among Baytown coaching finalists

[KFDM COOP]

Moody, Stowers among Baytown coaching finalists

Dave Rogers

The Orange Leader

BAYTOWN — A Baytown assistant coach with head coaching experience and four current head coaches are among those who made the first cut for the head football coaching job at Goose Creek Memorial.

Scott Joseph of the Lee coaching staff joined current head coaches from Killeen Ellison, Beaumont Central, Little Cypress-Mauriceville and Santa Fe among at least eight people interviewed Tuesday and Wednesday by the district, said a source close to the process.

Also getting an interview, according to the source, was Deer Park assistant Chris Cauley, a former head coach at Hempstead with close ties to Goose Creek schools athletic director Tom Ed Gooden and assistant superintendent Toby York.

Joseph, Beaumont Central coach Donald Stowers and LC-M coach Todd Moody all confirmed that they had been interviewed this week.

Cauley, Killeen Ellison coach Bret Boyd and Santa Fe coach Brent Southworth could not be reached by the Baytown Sun Thursday.

A school district spokesperson said Thursday the eight interviewed were merely semifinalists; that the field has been cut in half and a second round of interviews is being scheduled.

York said Wednesday a total of 81 coaches applied for the position, which combines coaching football and serving as campus athletic coordinator.

Dick Olin at Lee and Herb Minyard at Sterling have the same jobs a their schools.

The Baytown Sun filed a Texas Public Information Act request Nov. 16 for the school district to make public the list of applicants for the job, as required by state law.

The newspaper was promised that list would be turned over Thursday, but a district spokesperson said it wasn't ready Thursday.

Gooden, York, Memorial principal Al Richard, Gentry Junior principal Tammy Edwards and Suzanne Heinrich, the district's executive director of secondary education, made up the interview committee, said the source.

Richard is a former Goose Creek athletic director and York is a former high school head coach whose team won a state championship at Cameron Yoe High School in 1981.

The school district first posted the Memorial coaching job on its website in mid-October. Qualifications required included a valid teaching certificate and five years of coaching and teaching experience. Head coaching experience and a master's degree were preferred, the posting said.

The listing did not include a salary and district officials haven't revealed to the Baytown Sun what the job will pay.

However, in response to a second Texas Public Information Act request by the Baytown Sun, the district reported that Olin, a 16-year head coach in Baytown, will earn a salary of $88,356 for this school year.

Minyard, in his fourth year as head coach at Sterling and fifth year in the district, is being paid a salary of $78,355, the district said.

York said Wednesday he and his committee want to select a coach in time to take his name to the school board for approval at its Dec. 10 meeting.

"I don't know that that will happen," York said, "but if we had our druthers, that's what we'd do.

"It's an aggressive timeline, but we're working real hard to do what's best for these kids."

It is expected that a new coach will be in place in January for the start of the spring semester. In addition to hiring dozens of coaches to form Memorial's campus coaching staff, the new coach will conduct an off-season program for the football players who will attend Memorial.

Some close to the district believe that Cauley has the inside track because of his connections to York and Gooden.

Cauley's father, Ed, was head coach at Cameron in 1972-76, prior to York (1981-87) and Gooden (1988-93), who held the same job.

Gooden hired Chris Cauley as his defensive coordinator when Gooden was head coach at Pasadena Memorial, beginning in 2004. Cauley left Pasadena Memorial this year to work at Deer Park.

"He's an excellent coach, an excellent person," Deer Park athletic director Jerry Creel said Thursday. "We were very fortunate to get him.

"He has been a head coach already. I think he'll be an excellent head coach somewhere."

Cauley was head coach in Hempstead in 2002 and 2003, where his teams posted a 3-17 overall record.

Joseph is the son of Eddie Joseph, who recently retired after a long tenure as executive director of the Texas High School Coaches Association. He's also the brother of Katy head coach Gary Joseph.

Scott Joseph has coached for nearly 20 years, and was head coach at Houston Westbury in 2004-2006. His teams were 12-18 overall those three seasons.

Stowers, 37, had been an assistant at A&M Consolidated, Killeen Ellison and Killeen Harker Heights before taking over at Beaumont Central. He has put together an 18-13 record in his three seasons as a head coach, making the playoffs in 2005 and 2006.

Moody was defensive coordinator at Temple when he was hired at LC-M in 2005. His head coaching record there is 8-20.

Boyd has been head coach at Killeen Ellison for seven years, five at Harlingen and two at Brookshire Royal, amassing an overall record of 64-78. His Ellison teams have made the playoffs each of the last three years.

Southworth was head coach at Paris for five years (22-28 record) before moving to Santa Fe this past fall. His team there went 1-9 in a transition from a wishbone running offense to a spread passing offense.

[82 5A State Champs]

Stowers possibly jumping ship over at Central????? It's always tough to try and start a program from scratch, just ask the Atascocita HC Dean Clobert......it wasn't as easy as he thought!

[Guest etbu]

Stowers possibly jumping ship over at Central????? It's always tough to try and start a program from scratch, just ask the Atascocita HC Dean Clobert......it wasn't as easy as he thought!

Atascocita is not the Coaches fault but rather the parents bc they elected to play varsity ball for the first two years.

[KFDM COOP]

True.

[JMay]

They are opening a new school in Baytown?  Baytown Memorial?  I didn't know both schools where that populated.

[Bobcatfan4life]

They are opening a new school in Baytown?  Baytown Memorial?  I didn't know both schools where that populated.

Goose Creek Memorial

[KFDM COOP]

kogt

Little Cypress-Mauriceville Head Football Coach and Athletic Director Todd Moody has interviewed for the head football coaching position at Goose Creek Memorial, a new school in the Baytown area.  In three seasons at LCM, Moody is 8-20.

[Guest Chaingang Defense]

MOODY WANTS OUT

[82 5A State Champs]

kogt

Little Cypress-Mauriceville Head Football Coach and Athletic Director Todd Moody has interviewed for the head football coaching position at Goose Creek Memorial, a new school in the Baytown area.  In three seasons at LCM, Moody is 8-20.

he's probably not going to fare much better with the talent that's over there! Then again, maybe they've got the talent.....maybe it's the coaching!?

[ozens fastest@1906]

From what I've heard about Moody and Stowers these two guys are alike in many ways...

[Guest Kelly Football]

From what i heard the asst at Lee is the front runner

[gary-us-bonds]

Lee and Sterling are both extremely overcrowded right now.  There are a ton of houses going up north of I-10, which is where the third high school will be going up.  The two high schools are packed as it is, but the real growth is expected over the next few years, making the third high school vital.

I think Baytown has the talent to field a successful team or two.  Sterling actually has more athletes than Lee does in my opinion.  Olin is just a much better coach than anything Sterling has had recently.