Madill is looking for its third football coach in as many years after John Heavner resigned to accept a coaching position in Garden City, Kansas after one season at the helm of the Wildcats.
Heavner was hired at the Wildcat skipper almost one year to the day, taking over from Chad Speer, and guided the Wildcats to a 1-9 record in his lone campaign at the helm. The Wildcats battled through a somewhat limited number of participants as well as being marred by key injuries to a plethora of starting players during the course of the season.
Speer guided the Wildcats for four years before moving into a full-time role as the district’s athletic director.
“ThemainreasonforCoach Heavner leaving is that he had an opportunity to go somewhere that was less than an hour and a half from Fort Hays State, where his son is currently playing quarterbackandhisdaughter is going to college,” Speer commented.“Wehaveposted the job and already have gotten some good applicants. We are going to meet as an admin team soon and discuss where we might want to go in the process.
“We are just looking for the best possible candidate for Madill that can come in and build upon what Coach Heavner started here. We definitely would like to have the new coach hired by April 1 if possible.”
Speer’s tenure included a 6-4 record in the last campaignasmemberofClass 3A in 2021, which was also Madill’s lone winning season since Milton Cooper guided the squad to the Class 3A playoffs in 2016, the 29th playoff trip in school history.
The Wildcats have struggled to just a 7-23 overall gridiron record since the jump to Class 4A in enrollment three years ago, butwithprojectedenrollment figures could be returning to 3A when the next district alignment comes around, according to Speer.
“The schedule is a gauntlet right now, especially in district play, but there is a goodchancewemightbeback to 3A in a couple years,” he stated. “It would definitely be a benefit for us if that happens.”