In the great state of Texas, bigger is always better right?

This offseason has shown us that isn’t always the case as it pertains to head coaching vacancies, which have seen numerous coaches move down in classification to take on new roles.

From the outside looking in, it may appear to be a step down. But there are plenty of advantages to working at a smaller school. In many cases this enables the new head coach to take an athletic director position, which isn’t possible in the larger multi-school ISDs.

“The biggest draw for me was having the opportunity to implement our athletic vision from the top down, all the way down to the elementary level,” said Little Cypress-Mauriceville head coach Eric Peevey, who was previously the head coach at Beaumont West Brook. “We get to be involved all the way down and getting kids to be involved from our system from kindergarten and that’s amazing. In a larger district it’s tougher because you really don’t get to work with the kids until they are freshmen.”

Sometimes the chance to return to your hometown and coach your alma mater is too good to pass up too. Such is the case for new Comanche head coach Joaquin Escobar, who was previously head coach at Carrizo Springs with other stops at several larger high schools.

“It’s really special to come home,” he said. “Comanche is where I developed my character and values, so to come home and be able to impact the kids from my hometown means so much to me. Kids are kids and kids need coaches regardless of the A’s, but guys like Coach Gideon who impacted me as a kid were just huge, so I want give that back to the kids in Comanche.”

There are other times where maybe it’s just time for a change in your career and moving to a place where you can get a fresh start. That’s the case for new Tioga head coach Chad Rogers who arrived in town from Denison.

“For me in Denison, the athletic director title made it tougher to spend time with the kids, especially last year with Covid-19, and for lack of a better term ‘be in the trenches’ with the kids,” Rogers said. “I missed that part of it. There were times when because of my athletic director responsibilities, I had to miss offseason and that was tough. I’m a coach, bottom line, and I felt like getting to a smaller school enables me to get back to doing to what I love, which is coach kids and love on kids.”

Here’s the complete list from UIL 11-man football showing all the coaches who took head coaching positions in smaller classifications this off-season: