DICKIE BROWN-New head coach at York.

By KEVIN DONALDSON

CELINA-The search is underway for a successor to former Clay County High football coach Dickie Brown, who recently resigned to take the head coaching job at his alma mater, York Institute. 

Director of schools Donnie Cherry said the interview process for the next CCHS head coach will be conducted Monday, June 15. The search committee will have plenty of resumes to sort through, Cherry said, with several applications having been submitted.

Brown, named the 2008 co-coach of the year in the Upper Cumberland by the Herald-Citizen, submitted his resignation just after the end of the school year, and was named the head coach at York shortly after that, taking over the position formerly held by Derwin Wright.

In a recent interview with the HORIZON, Brown said there were basically three reasons for his making the move: finances, a chance to be closer to his parents, and an opportunity to go home.

“It was a matter of finances,” Brown said, citing a “better deal” of an overall package of pay and insurance at York, “and it was a chance to go home and be closer to my parents and help them out.”

Brown graduated from York in 1975, and is also a graduate of Middle Tennessee State University. He compiled a 12-9 record in two seasons at CCHS, including the first playoff trip for the team in a handful of seasons in 2008, when the Dawgs compiled a 7-4 mark. The Bulldogs were 5-5 in 2007, after a 2-8 season the year before. 

Prior to that, he was the head coach at Class 4-A White County for five seasons, and was also the head coach at Class 2-A Bledsoe County earlier in his career.

“The people in Clay County have been just great to us,” Brown said. “They wholeheartedly supported the things we did and accepted the changes we made. I couldn’t have been happier with the way things were going.

“I didn’t quit the boys,” Brown said. “I just had a chance to go home and a chance to be closer to my parents. My family and I have really enjoyed our time in Clay County.”

Brown’s two sons made the trip to Clay County to play for the Bulldogs. Aaron is now playing on Saturdays at Cumberland University, after one season at CCHS. Younger son Matt will play his senior year at York, after making the all-region team and being named the Upper Cumberland co-defensive player of the year by the Herald-Citizen in 2008. 

No definite date on hiring Brown’s successor has been set.