The cycle continues

By Greg Tepper // TexasFootball.com

Just the other day, my colleague Travis Stewart was marveling at the perpetual cycle of high school football coaching vacancies; in short, one would fill while another one opens.

Consider the cycle renewed, as a slew of coaching maneuvers has scattered the landscape in the past few days. Even in Texas, when it rains, it pours.

We'll start in the Valley and the latest in the ongoing saga at La Feria, as Bo Camacho has resigned his post after a single year. Less than one calendar year ago, Camacho had left his post at San Antonio Highlands for La Feria and had an OK season: 5-5, 2-3 in District 32-3A play, and missing the playoffs by a single game. It was the second consecutive year that the Lions missed the playoffs. But La Feria now enters a dangerous predicament in which it will look for its fourth coach in five years (Camacho replaced Elifonso Esquivel in 2010, who replaced Roberto Valdez in 2007), and anyone can tell you that the biggest poison to a program is instability. Whoever the Lions hire will have a pretty good program -- La Feria was in the state quarterfinals in 2008 -- that needs the same leader for longer than 10 months.

Cheerier news comes from east Texas, where Longview Pine Tree has a new head man. Derek Fitzhenry is leaving Giddings to take the gig as the head coach and AD for Pine Tree ISD. Fitzhenry had enormous success at 3A Giddings, going 73-23 in eight seasons, including a state semifinals appearance in 2008. He's now charged with the task of pulling Pine Tree out of a tailspin: the Pirates have won four games in the last three years. It's interesting to note that Fitzhenry was the subject of a lot of speculation surrounding the Pasadena Dobie opening last season.

Fort Bend Elkins has a new coach as well, as offensive coordinator Dennis Brantley gets the nod to replace the retiring Robert Crivellari. I've always thought that continuity is important, and with a team that went 7-4 last season and returns a slew of weapons (QB Jake Burkhalter, RB Dorian Williams, WR Chance Allen), I don't expect Elkins to skip a beat.

For those keeping score at home, that's two jobs filled (Pine Tree and Elkins) and two jobs vacated (La Feria and Giddings). And so it goes.