Churchill hires Shaw as new head coach

Wading through dozens of messages from well-wishers on Tuesday, Nate Shaw took the time to return a work-related call to a reporter from his car in the Churchill parking lot right before he was set to meet his new bosses.

Learning time management on the fly, he said he had seven minutes. That was enough for the 32year-old to express his feelings about becoming a head football coach for the first time.

“It’s been very exciting,” Shaw said. “I have a lot of people in my corner. The gratitude they’ve expressed has been off the charts.”

It’s been a quick life change for Shaw, who had been an assistant coach at Brennan until he turned in his resignation Tuesday morning about 12 hours after North East

ISD’S school board approved his hiring to lead Churchill’s football program.

“I’m blessed and fortunate that things lined up the way they did,” said Shaw, who had been with Brennan since 2016, including the last four seasons as the Bears’ offensive coordinator.

Shaw replaces Ron Harris, who stepped down after leading the Chargers for nine seasons. Harris was 49-48 overall, including 6-4 in 2023. Churchill qualified for the postseason four times during Harris’ tenure, including a trip to the state quarterfinals in 2016.

After graduating from Austin Anderson, Shaw played running back as a member of UTSA’S inaugural team in 2011. He played for the Roadrunners for four seasons then joined the coaching staff as a graduate assistant. He also served as a graduate assistant at Eastern Michigan before joining Brennan’s staff in 2016. He began as a running backs coach then oversaw the quarterbacks before he was tabbed to lead the offense in 2020.

In the first three seasons Shaw called the offense, the Bears thrived with quarterback Ashton Dubose, averaging 418.8 yards a game in 40 games. Brennan went 35-3 and advanced to the state quarterfinals twice in that span.

Brennan rebuilt slowly in 2023 after graduation took a toll on its roster. The Bears averaged 321.8 yards last season, which was third in District 29-6A. The Bears finished second in the district and advanced to the third round of the playoffs.

Shaw will try to spark a Churchill offense that has averaged 216.6 yards over the last 31 games.