The Hondo Owls have their next head football coach.

Joe Dale Cary is leaving his post at Crandall to be the new head coach and athletic director, Hondo ISD announced on Monday. 

Cary spent the last six seasons in Crandall posting a 36-31 overall record, including a 10-3 mark in 2019 leading Crandall to the Class 4A-Division I regional semifinals. He also led Crandall to an area round playoff appearance in 2017 and led Crandall to the playoffs in five of his six seasons, only in his first year at Crandall when the Pirates posted a 2-8 record did Cary’s teams miss the post-season. 

“There were a lot of boxes that were checked with Hondo,” Cary said. “The location, living in the Hill Country, is just unbelievable, we’ve got family in Marble Falls and San Antonio, so it’s great fron that aspect. The overall quality of life is top notch, the town just feels like hone. It’s a place where we can settle down, there’s lots of tradition in Hondo and the ability to win year and year out, were all very appealing.  I’ve talked to a bunch of coaches about Hondo when I did my research and even spoke to Coach (Brett) Ratliff (former Hondo head coach) and no one had a negative thing to say about the community of Hondo."

“We’ve got some unique challenges with all that’s going on right now," he added. "Our job as coaches is to get ready to hit the ground running as soon as we get the green light to start up workouts. We’ll be virtually meeting with the kids soon so I can get to know them and start to build those relationships, we talk as coaches about being able to adapt and controlling what we can control and we are trying to model that and adapt to the challenges in front of us."

Prior to his stop in Crandll, Cary was the offensive coordinator for five seasons at Port Neches-Groves and he has also spent time as an assistant at Aledo, San Antonio Reagan and Killeen Harker Heights.

Hondo, who was 6-6 a year ago, has advanced to the area round of the playoffs in three of the past four seasons, but they haven’t been past the area playoffs since 2006 when they posted a 14-1 record and a trip to the state semifinals.

_____

Become a DCTF Insider today for exclusive insight from the best team of reporters in the Lone Star State! CLICK HERE!

Your subscription will include:

• Instant access to all of our content that is marked Insider at www.texasfootball.com.
  • Includes exclusive podcasts, recruiting news, and our full High School Football rankings and score predictors
• A mailed copy of the Dave Campbell’s Texas Football Preview 
• A mailed copy of the Recruiting/Rising Edition of Dave Campbell’s Texas Football
• Access to Dave Campbell’s Texas Football vast array of archived magazines