The Record Newspapers - Hometown News For Orange County, Texas

David Ball

For The Record

Instead of an athlete being sidelined due to an injury, a coach has taken himself out of the lineup.

Brian Huckabay, head coach and athletic director, submitted a letter of resignation at the Monday night regular meeting of the Orangefield Independent School District board of trustees due to surgery a couple of weeks ago.

“It’s in our best interest,” Huckabay said. “I had knee replacement surgery and I need to recover from that. I didn’t want to still be recovering in late June and put the kids in a bad situation (with the start of football season) and have a distraction.”

As far as finding a replacement, Huckabay believes some of his assistants on his staff may make a good head coach.

“There’s some good guys there,” he said.

Huckabay recently had his contract extended at a board meeting on March 27.

Regarding that meeting, Huckabay said the meeting in March was “Water under the bridge because it is in the past.”

In a prior Record article, the crowd broke into cheers and applause at that meeting when they heard the Orangefield ISD’s Board of Trustees’ decision to extend Huckabay’s contract for two years. The vote count were three yeas, one no and two abstentions with Trustee Thad Angelle voting no and Trustees Jack Smith and Susan Gunstream abstaining.

The meeting was held in the Orangefield High School Cafeteria. Nearly 100 supporters consisting of parents and students attended the entire four hour long meeting to hear the final outcome.

“It warms by heart to see the support here. Especially with the kids,” Huckabay said.

With the extension Huckabay said he planned to stay in Orangefield. He added another factor in wanting to stay at OHS was the progress football and other athletic programs have made over the years.

Orangefield ISD released in June, 2009, Huckabay was one of 21 applicants who submitted resumes in hopes to fill the Athletic Director’s position. Coach Blake Morrison submitted his resignation on May 28.

Huckabay was assistant principal at Hull-Daisetta from 2008-2009 and the athletic director at Paul Prewitt.

Huckabay took over the Bobcat program in August 2009.

Orangefield hosted Vidor in a scrimmage August 15. The Bobcats opened the season in Winnie when they faced East Chambers August 28.

“It’s a great environment here,” he said. “Principal Shaun McAlpin has a positive attitude. My son is also a freshman here.”

Huckabay said contract extensions are a yearly process for school boards to consider and it’s usual for administrators, such as himself, to have their contracts extended by two years.

When asked if he thought March 27 might had been his last night of employment with OISD, Huckabay said he tries not to speculate on those things. He added he anticipates any plans not to rehire him are over.

“I concentrate doing the job rather than keeping a job and just do the right thing,” Huckabay said.

Earlier in the March, Philip Welch resigned as superintendent of OISD. He was with the district for over 20 years and the district superintendent for five years.

The board of trustees named Kay Karr as the interim superintendent at a special meeting Tuesday night.