133 Apply for LG Football Coaching Job; Interviews This Week

Lots of folks want to be the next head football coach/ athletic director at La Grange High School.

Superintendent Andy McHazlett said 133 people applied for the position by last Wednesday’s deadline.

“I was thinking maybe we’d get 100 but they kept coming,” McHazlett said. “Included in those 133 were some really top notch people.”

Thursday the La Grange school board met in closed session with McHazlett to make sure everyone was on the “same page” going forward in the process.

McHazlett said he had done significant research on the candidates and presented his thoughts to the board. After discussion, eight semifinalists were identified to be interviewed by a 10-person local committee.

Those interviews will be held this week over a two-day span.

“Narrowing it down to eight was tough, but we feel really comfortable with those selected,” McHazlett said. “There are some strong candidates that are not getting interviews. But these eight, this isn’t their first rodeo. They’ve proven themselves. This is not a job where we’re taking a chance on somebody.”

McHazlett was a coach for 25 years and he said that background helped him to analyze the candidates, and know people who could give him insight into the candidates.

“Doing background research on the applicants was very time consuming but it should be,” McHazlett said.

McHazlett said that if one candidate emerges as a clear choice from this week’s interviews, a sole finalist could be presented to the school board but more likely a second round of interviews would occur with “no more than three” of those eight making it to a second round of interviews.

Ideally, McHazlett said he would like to have a new head coach/athletic director hired by the school board before spring break, which is March 15-19.