Hawks finally hire football coach Former Bay City coach Alan Cherry awarded job

HARLINGEN — Nearly two months of uncertainty are over at Harlingen South.

The Harlingen school board voted 4-1 on Thursday to hire former Bay City head football coach Alan Cherry as the Hawks fourth head football coach in school history.

The board adjourned to go into executive session for half an hour at a special meeting held at the Harlingen school district’s service center.

“I’m very excited to be there,” Cherry said in a telephone interview from his home in Bay City. “I hope to be there by March 19. That’s when they’re having their football banquet. I’d like to introduce myself there. That’s an important date for me.”

George McShan motioned to hire Cherry as head football coach-athletic coordinator and Omar Cano seconded the motion.

Everyone voted in favor of hiring Cherry except Javier De Leon. Verna Young and Gerry Fleuriet did not attend the meeting.

Before the board would vote on the motion, De Leon made a short statement expressing disapproval with Superintendent Linda Wade and the school board’s decision to go outside of the Valley to hire a new coach.

“I’m very disappointed the board pick someone from outside the Valley,” De Leon said. “We had great individuals apply with ties to the Valley and that have been part of this school district. There were a couple of individuals that were finalists before in Jesse Landeros and Gus Cavazos that would have made excellent choices for head coach. They have a vested interest being from here.”

Cherry brings 26 years of coaching experience with 17 of those as head coach.

Cherry spent the past four years at Bay City where he led the Black Cats to the Class 4A state title game in 2003. Bay City lost to North Crowley in the title game.

In 2004 and 2005, Bay City reached the playoffs but lost in the first round both years.

The Black Cats entered the 2004 season ranked No. 1 in the state and remained there for eight week. Bay City finished a disappointing 2-8 last season.

Cherry has a career record of 160-51.

Before Bay City, Cherry served as head coach at Class 3A Crane from 1996-2000. Crane won four district titles under Cherry and reached the state semi-finals in 1999.

Cherry also served as head football coach at Class 2A Hamlin and Class A Hart. At Hamlin, Cherry led his team to the state semis in 1994. Hart reached the state quarterfinals in 1992 and a bi-district appearance in 1990 was Hart’s first playoff berth in 14 years.

Cherry runs a Pro-Style offense with a lot of spread offensive sets in the package. On defense, Cherry runs an aggressive 3-4 defense.

“When I get there I want to have a certain plan already in place,” Cherry said. “But we also want to work on some of the things they’re doing down there. After a few days we’ll get to see where their strengths are. We’ll see the bend of their strengths and we’ll jump on those bends.”

The Harlingen South position became vacant when Jim Helms was hired at Brownsville Rivera on Jan. 16.

The position quickly drew interest with 15 coaches submitting applications, including former Weslaco head coach Jim Hite, Lyford head coach Jaime Infante and former Harlingen South defensive coordinator Rudy Gonzalez.

Wade narrowed that list to three finalists calling back Mercedes football coach Gilbert Leal, Rio Hondo head coach Gus Cavazos and Harlingen South offensive coordinator Jesse Landeros.

Wade then chose to recommend Leal for the position to the school board at their Feb. 13 meeting. But when Wade and Leal couldn’t see eye-to-eye during salary negotiations, Leal withdrew his name from the short list of finalist just hours before the school board was to vote in favor of hiring him

A couple of days later, an interviewing committee decided to re-open the position and take more applications for at least two weeks.

A week later, 12 more coaches submitted their names including Former Texas A&M-Kingsville head coach Richard Cundiff and Dallas Cowboys scout Sam Garza.