Palestine Westwood on Monday night officially named Brazoswood defensive coordinator Randy Pippin as its next head football coach, stepping into a program that has finished the past two seasons with an interim head coach.

“I’ve got a lot of mutual friends with Coach Bryant (Westwood ISD Athletic Director)," he said. "I think a lot of Coach Bryant and I’m excited to work with him and the staff in place. There’s so many great people in East Texas. Football is important in the community and there’s a lot of excitement. I think my defensive background makes it a good fit for me and Westwood and I’m ready to move back to East Texas."

Pippin, a native of Dallas, played collegiately at Cisco College and Tennessee Tech before starting his college career as a graduate assistant at Tennessee Tech. He’s best known in East Texas for a wildly successful stint at Trinity Valley Community College from 1990-1995. He served as the Cardinals defensive coordinator for two seasons, before being promoted to head coach in 1993. After going 8-1-2 in his debut season, he led TVCC to a 12-0 mark and a NJCAA national championship.

The new Westwood head coach has also served as a head coach at two other junior colleges, Middle Georgia College and Northwest Mississippi College. He also spent three seasons as the head coach at Division II West Alabama University.

Pippin had stints as an assistant coach at the college level at Tennessee Tech, Alabama-Birmingham, East Texas Baptist and East Central University in Oklahoma.

Coach Pippin saod he will finish out the year at Brazoswood where he’s also a track coach and has athletes competing at the state track meet this weekend. Once the school year ends, Pippin said he’ll be on the ground at Westwood ready for a June 1 start to summer camp.

With the late arrival on campus, the timing is condensed, but Pippin is confident that the transition will be a smooth one.

“The staff has done a fabulous job holding things together," he said. "The kids have had a great offseason and the coaches have been working them hard. We’ll hit the ground running June 1 with the summer program and play catchup and get ready for August.”