Decatur, West Fork searching for coaches

SPRINGDALE — Add West Fork and Decatur to the list of high schools in Arkansas that will have new football coaches this fall.

West Fork football coach Brad Lindley resigned to take an assistant coaching position on Billy Dawson’s staff at Fayetteville. Shane Holland stepped down at Decatur but will remain at the school and focus on coaching the Bulldogs’ track and cross country teams.

Holland coached football for six years at Decatur, which often struggles to even field a team. Decatur does not hold spring practices to allow its athletes to compete in track and field.

The Decatur girls won the Class 1A track and field state championship and the Decatur boys finished second at the finals in March.

“Shane is a great track coach and this (move) will give him more time to work with those kids,” Decatur Athletic Director John Unger said. “This is a tactical move. Instead of losing a coach, we’ll be adding a coach.”

Unger said he’s already received applications for the football job and expects to have a replacement for Holland within two weeks. The Bulldogs went 1-9 last season after struggling again to find enough players to field a team.

“This is a hard place to run a football program,” Unger said. “We’ve got some athletes, but not a lot of kids who are experienced with football. But we’re going to get the right person in here and coach Holland will help with that.”

Lindley will join the defending Class 7A state champions at Fayetteville after leading West Fork to two conference championships in four seasons with the Tigers. West Fork went 1-9 in Class 4A last year after winning consecutive conference championships in Class 3A.

“The timing of this doesn’t help, but kids are resilient,” West Fork Athletic Director Rodney Selph said of the football opening at his school. “It’s just something that happened. But we’ll get a new coach in here in June and he’ll have two months to get ready for the fall.”

West Fork will open the season at Greenland, while Decatur will host Class 4A Berryville, both on Sept. 1.