Trending
Hott
ELKINS -- Elkins High School's football program will see changes in its coaching staff for the 2021 season after the resignation of the head coach and three assistants.
During the most recent regular Randolph County Board of Education meeting, the resignation of Elkins High School's head football coach, Evan Hott, and three of his assistant coaches was accepted by the board.
The resigning assistant coaches were Zachary Neff, Shane Richardson and Timothy Patrick.
The EHS football team won the first playoff game in the school's history this season, after playing no home games during the regular season due to Wimer Stadium being deemed unsafe earlier this year.
Randolph County Schools Superintendent Debbie Schmidlen said the Elkins High School's staff and county administration are anxious to welcome a new staff. The head coaching position has been posted on the RCS website, and applications are now being accepted.
Schmidlen explained it was requested that the head coaching position be posted and filled before filling assistant positions so the new head coach could have an opportunity to be part of the hiring process.
In addition, EHS staff and county administrators have been working to establish a plan for the upcoming football season. Schmidlen noted the county is in the planning stages and will hold a meeting with coaches, school and county officials and stakeholders in January.
Following that January meeting, RCS will fully disclose information regarding plans for the upcoming 2021 football season to the public.
In October, the BOE unanimously voted to approve Schmidlen's recommendation to remove the visitor and home bleachers from Wimer Stadium in Elkins.
This recommendation came after the stadium was deemed "unsafe to be occupied by spectators" earlier this year. The public announcement was made in late August, and the fall schedules of both the Elkins High School and Elkins Middle School football teams had to be rearranged. Neither team was able to play any games at Wimer Stadium this fall.
In the spring, the West Virginia Board of Risk and Insurance Management performed an inspection on Wimer Stadium. Following this inspection, BRIM advised Randolph County Schools officials to bring in an engineer to perform a bleacher inspection. This inspection was performed by FaciliServ. After the inspection, a structural engineer deemed the bleaches unsafe.
The removal of the bleachers came at no cost to the county, as a local business -- Valley Steel Service Inc., located in Dailey -- agreed to remove the metal from the bleachers and other metal from the stadium at no charge.