Kemper Co. opens up football coaching job
Fresh off a 9-4 season that saw the Kemper County High School football team battle through adversity on the way to advancing to the third round of the MHSAA Class 2A State Football Playoffs, the Wildcats are officially in the search for a new head coach.
Superintendent of Education Hilute Hudson said the position was officially opened on Monday and by Tuesday evening 20 resumes had been received.
The opening occurred with the resignation of head coach Ray Westerfield. He was placed on administrative leave following the sixth game of the season, with Dicenzo Miller taking the interim coach role for the remainder of the season.
Westerfield later tendered his resignation after being arrested by the Kemper County Sheriff’s department on sexual battery charges.
Hudson said he is expecting a large number of applicants from across the state. He said that he talked to the current coaching staff before posting the job and said they were told they were welcome to apply.
“Dicenzo Miller did a good job filling in as the interim coach and coach Andrew Powell helped with some of those duties as well,” Hudson said. “The way the coaches and players stuck together and made it all the way to the third round was amazing.”
Hudson said he thought the program was in a good place, but was also positioned to become consistently competitive in the postseason.
“We are hoping to find a good candidate with some head coaching experience,” he said “The program has won the division title two years in a row, so we are going to find a quality leader that can build a program that fits our school.”
While there is no deadline to submit a resume at this point, Hudson said they hoped to have someone to present to the school board by January so that the new coach can come in and put together an offseason program.