Coaching vacancies remain

A domino effect from the March 28 meeting of the Franklin County Board of Education has left two county teams without coaches.

During that meeting, the board approved the move of Vina football coach Bill Smith to Tharptown and also decided not to renew the coaching contract of Phil Campbell girls basketball coach Amy Moss.

The board filled one of those vacancies at the May 6th meeting by naming Darit Riddle the coach of the Phil Campbell girls basketball team.

Riddle, who is also the softball coach, replaced Gary Odom as the boys coach before the start of last season after Odom was named principal of Tharptown High School.

Riddle led the boys basketball team to the Franklin County Tournament title last season.

That created a new opening for the head-coaching job of the boys program at that school.

Superintendent Gary Williams said those are the only coaching changes he expects, but does not know when the two vacant positions will be filled.

He said the board has not posted the job opening at Vina and is waiting until it knows what teaching positions will be available at the school.

There have been a few candidates for the Phil Campbell girls position and some informal talks have taken place.

“We might have somebody ready by Thursday’s meeting, but I’m not sure,” Williams said.