The Bruce Trojan football program is still without a head coach after the school board declined to accept a candidate recommended by Superintendent Mike Moore Monday night.
Ken Chandler, who most recently coached at Winona Christian School, and coached at Winona High School for more than a decade prior to that, was presented to the school board Monday night to be hired.
“Chandler has been outstanding every where he’s been,” Moore said in presenting Chandler as the preferred choice to the board. “He’s one we targeted from day one and we feel real good about him.”
Board President Danny Harrelson then called for a motion from the board to hire Chandler. The board sat silent for nine minutes, reading over Chandler’s resume which was presented to them at the start of the meeting.
Board member Bubba Weeks, of Bruce, broke the silence when he asked BHS Principal Michael Gillespie if he had a comment on the potential hiring of Chandler.
“I see us making progress every year with his track record,” Gillespie said. “I see him as being able to take our program and build on it.”
“I’m totally in the blind as far as this goes,” Weeks said. “I know y’all (Moore and Gillespie) have done y’all’s work, but as far as reading through all this (resume), I have no idea. I’m more here for the academic side, but when you’re out in the public this is a big decision.”
“It is, but the board’s job is not to interview teachers and stuff like that. We’re to take the information and recommendation that the superintendent presents to us, and if we think it’s a good candidate, we vote for it, and if not, you vote against it,” Harrelson said.
He told the board they can vote for it, against it, or table it, and then asked again for a motion.
After another five minutes of silence, board member Don Hardin, of Vardaman, motioned in favor of approving the personnel actions. Harrelson then declared the motion died for lack of a second after another three and half minutes of silence.
Board member Precious Thompson, of Calhoun City, said she was “skeptical” of bringing someone in for the job from out-of-town.
Reginal Baskin, board member from Bruce, said after the meeting he was representing his constituents who preferred a local candidate.
“We started with 52 applications and narrowed it down to six,” Mike Moore said in the meeting. “We interviewed all six of those. This process has been ongoing for several weeks now. It’s harder than you think it is to hire someone. On one hand, you want to find a perfect fit for our school, but then it needs to be a perfect fit for the coach, too.”
Moore said after the meeting he wasn’t certain of the next step in the process. Board Attorney Paul Moore, Jr. said it could be placed on the agenda for the next meeting and brought up again.