Bill Navas, who coached the Jefferson Dragons football team to the 2008 8-AA title, resigned as head football coach last week.
Navas announced in an email released on Friday that has accepted an administrative position at Duluth High School.
He will serve as Duluth’s Director of Athletics.
“It was a tough decision,” Navas said. “I’ve always wanted to get into the administrative side of things. At first, I really wasn’t very interested in the job, but the more I went through the job, the more I liked what they had to say and the direction they’re trying to go. I thought it was a great fit.”
The decision means that Navas will be getting out of the coaching business.
“I don’t know if coaching is out of my blood yet,” he said. “I guess I’ll have to cross that bridge when I come to it. On Friday nights, I’ll be getting antsy, and we’ll have to see how things go.”
Navas said working with Jefferson Athletic Director Tim Corbett helped prepare him for the next step in his career.
“I’ve learned a lot just by watching him, and I have a lot of respect for the job he does here. That’s going to be a good springboard for how I’m going to approach and handle things at Duluth.”
Corbett said that while he hates to see Navas go, he appreciates the job he has done with the football program.
“Coach Navas, the entire football staff and certainly the athletes involved are to be commended,” Corbett added.
Navas said he feels like the program, which not only won the 8-AA title last year, but also experienced their first undefeated season in recent memory, will continue down the path he has started it on.
“We’ve got great kids,” he said. “Our kids will be at every practice, they will be on time for every practice, they will work hard and they will play hard. I think that the program will continue to prosper. I want to do everything I can to make this transition as smooth as possible and continue to develop our kids.”
Corbett said that the process is already underway to hire someone to move forward with the program.
For more on this story, see Wednesday's edition of The Jackson Herald.
There's a thing called a Life Plan. Coach Navas seems to have one and this was the next step.
Also, your statement about "talent is leaving" couldn't be further from the truth. Yes, the Dragons are losing Zach Crosby, Sasser Conner, Tab Martin and Patrick Allen- three BIG ones- but a year ago we were trying to figure out how to replace Tyler Hill and Mack Rakestraw.
Coming back are Darius Minor, Lucas Redd, Kyle Moseley, Hoytez Damons among others.
Next year's squad will be almost as good as the 11-1 group.
If Coach Navas was ever going to move on- this was the year for both parties. Navas parlays his work into an AD job at a 5A school and Jefferson gets to spend some time looking for a top-notch coach.