Bixby Football Coaching Search Moving Along

Originally Published: Feb 7, 2010 4:31 PM CDT

Curt Hill
Oklahoma Sports Staff Writer

BIXBY, Oklahoma – Bixby athletic director Stephanie Blackwell says the search committee for a new head football coach has narrowed down applicants and is ready to interview finalists for the position.

“We will start interviewing soon, and then in March we will hopefully have named someone to take to the school board,” Blackwell said. “Spring football is about to start and the sooner that we can get someone in place, the sooner we can continue with the success we've had.”

The process began in early January after Pat McGrew stepped down after 11 seasons as head coach. In an interview with Oklahoma Sports, McGrew said there was nothing negative about his resignation.

“It’s just the fact that I thought it was time," McGrew said. "I'm happy with it and my family is happy with it."

The school began taking applications shortly after McGrew’s resignation and Blackwell said there were about 50 applicants by the time the application process stopped on January 29th. When the applications were processed, a six-person committee began reviewing applications individually and selected finalists.

“Members went through applications and had their own criteria. Then we met and discussed the people that we thought should get an interview,” Blackwell said. “We looked at what success they had to what classification they've coached. We each had certain things we were looking for, and that's how we've cut down who we were going to interview.”

Blackwell said McGrew was not on the search committee. She added that it will be tough to replace a coach that took the Spartans to three 5A state championship games.

“He just did great things on and off the field. He's involved in our community, he's involved in youth football, and he's just a great leader to the whole coaching staff here,” Blackwell said. “It's going to be incredibly difficult to find someone to replace him.”