Rio Vista named Groveton head coach Matthew Woodard as its next athletic director/head football coach on Wednesday. 

Woodard replaces Kasey Black, who stepped down shortly after the end of the season.

Woodard has spent the last two seasons at Groveton where he led the Indians to the playoffs in both seasons. Woodard’s squad took a step forward in 2023 posting a 7-4 record after sneaking into the playoffs in 2022 with a 3-8 record.

Woodard has served as an assistant at Allen and Port Neches-Groves among other spots and is one of three Woodard brothers who are currently head coaches in Texas. David Woodard is the athletic director/head football coach at West and Jim Woodard is the head football coach at Cleburne.

“This was really a move for family reasons,” Woodard said. “Groveton’s been amazing to me and my family, but this move puts me closer to my mom who lives in Whitney, which is about 20 minutes away, and both of my brothers are now less than 30 minutes away with Jim literally being 10 minutes up the road."

Woodard takes over a Rio Vista program that has posted three straight losing seasons after a 2-8 mark in 2023. The Eagles are one of the state’s larger 2A-Division I programs falling less than 10 students under the 2A/3A cut-line.