By Bob Sutton
Special to The Alamance News
Openings on Southern Alamance’s football coaching staff didn’t take first-year coach Jonathan Hester by surprise.
With the departure of assistants to Orange this month, Hester had formulated a plan.
“I kind of already knew that that was a possibility, so I started looking at some things,” Hester said. “I’ve already been working on talking to some guys. I’ve talked to a bunch of people and tried to find the best fit for our kids.”
Former Southern coach Fritz Hessenthaler was introduced as Orange’s new coach last week. He took assistant coaches Will Robinson, who had been defensive coordinator at Southern, and Eric Blackwell, along with longtime aide Danny Pope with him.
So about two months before the start of the season, Hester had vacancies to fill.
He said he’s comfortable that those staff positions will be in good hands. The process has started to hire three men, who are certified to coach and have gone through background checks. The Patriots are waiting on formal approvals.
“It has been a weird year as far as people leaving schools and getting hired,” Hester said. “There has been some turnover.”
Southern’s vacancies are largely on defense – coordinator, secondary coach, linebackers or linemen. The offensive staff is mostly intact with Johnny Isley, Kyle Deadmon, and Chris Miller. Hester said adding a receivers coach might happen, but it’s not a priority because of the run-oriented offense.
Along with the defections to Orange, Jeremy Knight previously left the football staff, though he remains at Southern and is an assistant baseball coach. There also was the matter of filling Hester’s spot as he previously coached defensive linemen prior to being hired in early April as the head coach.
Robinson and Blackwell were on board with the Patriots during May’s spring practice.
Hester said about 40-45 players participated daily in the spring work, while about 15 others were still in baseball or lacrosse seasons. Plus, at least 20 freshmen are expected to join the team this summer, the coach said.
“At the end of the day, we’ll be fine,” Hester said.
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