When the 2006-2007 school year begins, there will be some new faces on the sidelines at the local high schools and some of these faces will be familiar to those who follow high school athletics in the county.

Whitewater will have new coaches in several sports, two of whom have enjoyed success at other county high schools. Ben Thacker will be leaving the Fayette County soccer sidelines to coach volleyball at the school, while Mickey Staham, former wrestling coach at Starr’s Mill, returns to the mats this year for the Wildcats. Kirk Call, a former coach at Parkview, will head up the girls basketball program next year and Jennifer Sewall will be the coach for the girls track program.

McIntosh High School will have new head football coach, Dwight Jones, and assistant football coach, Paul Carroll, taking the place of Butch Prosser and Scott Schmitt. David Dowse, from Grayson High School, will head up the girls basketball program in place of Steve Kidd and Joe Gaspierik, the assistant softball coach, will move up to replace Kristy Lewis, as head softball coach. Pam Farina will be the head coach for Football/Competition Cheer, while Brooke Svoboda wil be the JV Football/Competition Cheer coach.

Starr’s Mill has a few coaching positions open but has not filled all of them as of yet, according to Assistant Principal Mike Davis. “Those that we have filled, we are not yet ready to announce,” he added. The only head coaching positions that are open are boys lacrosse and boys and girls tennis, the rest are all assistant positions.

Sandy Creek will be replacing the girls basketball head coach position and the track position as both Tara Ware and Cory Dickerson are moving on. As of press time, there were no reports of other coaching changes at the school or word on who their replacements would be.

Mike Grabhorn, the former assistant girls soccer coach, will be the head coach for the girls team at Fayette County and Ruben Calleiro will be serving as a community coach for the boys. At press time, school officials had not responded to an e-mail about any other coaching changes at the school.

Our Lady of Mercy will have a new cross country coach as Erich Chatham will be attending graduate school. The school also will have a new football coach, Brian Pinabell, and a new offensive coordinator, Chad Flatt. Pinabell comes from St. Pius and Flatt comes from Shiloh. Our Lady of Mercy is in the process of hiring more coaches and will release their names at a later date.

Landmark Christian has a new athletic director. Barb Mason, head volleyball coach, has stepped in to the position and Ted Knapp has taken a position in West Palm Beach. There is no word of any coaching changes occuring at the school as of yet.

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