Don Hanna hired as new head coach

In need of a rebuild, Lake Worth has hired Don Hanna — the architect of the Village Academy program — as its new football coach.

The longest-tenured coach in the Tigers’ short history, Hanna spent eight seasons leading the Delray Beach school. After serving as the defensive coordinator during Village Academy’s inaugural season in 2008, Hanna was promoted to head coaching position the following year and led the program for nearly a decade.

Hanna takes over for Micah Mays, who stepped down in December to become the new athletic director at Palm Beach Lakes. The Trojans are coming off an 0-9 season.

“The Lake Worth area has a lot of talent so it’s definitely a gold mine in Palm Beach County,” said Hanna, who spent the past season as West Boca’s defensive coordinator. “When the job became available, I felt like it was a no-brainer.”

“Coming from Village and pretty much starting that program, it’s like taking a stroll down memory lane. It’s just building from the floor up and trying to get it going.”

Hanna is the second major hire for the school in the past two weeks. In February, the school hired former Inlet Grove football coach and athletic director Michael Timpson as its new AD.

“We tried very hard to look at someone that had the character of what we really wanted around at Lake Worth,” Timpson said. “It was that [Hanna] had the character that we thought would be a good fit for Lake Worth.”

A Delray Beach native, Hanna helped guide the small program from infancy to playoff contender, leading the team to four postseason berths in his final five years of his tenure.

Hanna will have his work cut out for him in his new gig.

While there’s plenty of talent in the Lake Worth area, the school has never been able to put it all together on the field. The program has won just two playoff games and last made the postseason in 2010.