Wednesday, June 5, 1996

New head football coach for Eagle ready for challenge

By TED DUNNAM
Assistant Sports Editor

After receiving the jolt that Abilene High's Gary Gaines had accepted the head football coaching job at San Angelo Central Monday morning, the Abilene school board responded by hiring Eagle assistant Steve Warren as the new AHS head coach Monday night.

Gaines leaves AHS after two years in which he compiled a 3-16 record. Warren, who has served as an assistant under Gaines for the past two years, takes over a program that will see its third head coach in four years.

"I hate to lose Coach Gaines. He began a good thing here," Superintendent Charles Hundley said. "I am sorry he did not choose to bring it to fruition. And, of course, the timing of his resignation could not be worse for 1996 Eagle football."

Gaines said in a telephone interview from Ruidoso, N.M., that he knew his resignation was a sensitive matter. He was offered and accepted a two-year deal with San Angelo Central at 11:45 a.m. Monday.

"It was one of those gut-wrenching deals for me," Gaines said. "When you develop a positive relationship with the players and coaching staff, it magnifies the difficulty to decide what to do.
"But I'm convinced I'm doing what's best. It's very tough to leave. (AHS Principal) Royce Curtis,
Mr. Hundley and (AISD Athletic Director) Robert Starr - they've just done everything to help the program at Abilene High, and I'm very indebted to them."

So what was the deciding factor that led Gaines to San Angelo Central?

"That's a good question, and I don't know if I can express the answer in words," Gaines said. "There were some things that were really non-football related, some administrative-type duties that were a little more appealing.

"Sharon (Gaines' wife) and I both went to college there, and we've got a lot of friends in San Angelo. It (leaving) was a combination of things, and had nothing to do with our players. I have a lot of respect for the attitude and work habits of our players."

Gaines said he believes he's left a solid foundation for Warren.
"I hope so. I certainly hope that it's better now than when I came, but that's certainly subjective and people will have to form their own opinions," Gaines said. "I thought we made a lot of positive strides. The only negative that I could see was that our numbers never did reflect the positive program that we had. In two years, I had hoped our numbers would be better than what they were.

"I don't feel a sense of betrayal (to Abilene High) at all. I poured every ounce of my energy into the program, working day and night. Steve's a very able coach, and the kids have a lot of respect for him. I've got all the confidence in the world in his abilities."

Central will be the third District 4-5A school at which Gaines has coached, having coached at Odessa Permian before coming to Abilene High. He is taking assistant coach Bren Holland with him to serve on the Central staff.

Prior to coming to AHS, Gaines had a 3-7 record at Denver City in one season and a 3-6 mark at Amarillo Tascosa. He compiled a 24-7-2 record at Monahans and later won a state championship in 1989 while head coach at Odessa Permian.

In three of his four years at Permian, the Panthers made the playoffs. Gaines then left Permian and served as an assistant coach at Texas Tech from 1990-94 before coming to Abilene High.
Warren, meanwhile, will try to pick up and improve where Gaines left off. Warren has been the head football coach at Rotan and Wall high schools while serving as an assistant coach at Grapevine, Sweetwater and Rockwall.

"I'm excited about the opportunity," Warren said. "It's been a dream of mine to be a head football coach in a Class 5A program. It's going to be a big challenge to continue what Coach Gaines has started.

"The administration's confidence in me gives me a lot of confidence."
Warren said his first order of work will be to complete his staff. He said he needs to fill two vacancies.

Warren said the Eagle offensive and defensive schemes will remain pretty much the same.
"We've been multiple on offense and running a 4-3 on defense. I don't foresee a lot of changes there," Warren said. "The only thing we did differently in the spring was make a few defensive adjustments, and that mainly was becoming more of an attacking defense than one that just reads."

Starr said Warren's contract runs through the 1996 season.

Starr had reasons for not making the Abilene High coaching vacancy public.

"We evaluated the situation and felt good about the strides we were making," Starr said. "We felt we were on a very positive track. Steve is one of the most outgoing young coaches we have, and he's one that we feel will do an excellent job at Abilene High.

"He's very upbeat, very honest and will be a tremendous asset to Abilene High. On top of that, he's a great administrator. I have all the respect in the world for Steve, and I do for Gary, also. I wish both of them the best."