Nederland names potentials for Neumann’s successor

Published 8:16 pm Wednesday, February 15, 2017

Two current Nederland coaches and a Port Arthur Memorial assistant are among 10 applicants for the head football coach and athletic director positions announced by the Nederland ISD on Wednesday.
It was not immediately clear, however, if the 10 are finalists for the position or if there were more applicants. The list was released at 4:30 p.m. Wednesday.
Monte Barrow, who has been on the Nederland football staff since the recently retired Larry Neumann became head coach in 1993, and Nederland boys basketball coach Brian English are among the candidates announced by assistant superintendent Mike Laird. Barrow is the Bulldogs’ offensive coordinator and assistant track and field coach who has been a part of eight district championship teams.
English is wrapping up his 11th season as Nederland’s head basketball coach. He has turned the Bulldogs into a perennial playoff team in what is now District 22-5A and won three district championships. Nederland has gone to the regional semifinals twice and the regional quarters three times.
Phillip Mattingly, Memorial’s special teams coordinator and varsity offensive line coach, is also listed. Mattingly also serves as Memorial’s girls soccer coach.
Three candidates are currently serving as head football coaches, with two of them already in athletic director roles.
Todd Doughty has the dual roles at Electra, where he’s posted a 24-21 record the past three years, leading the Tigers to the playoffs each time. Electra, which went 10-2 this past season, competes in District 7-2A Division II.
Doughty has an 87-89 record in 16 seasons. He also coached at Mineola, Thorndale and Meridian.
Jonathon Thompson is head coach and AD at St. Petersburg (Fla.) Gibbs High, where he also heads the track team. Thompson, a University of North Carolina graduate, was hired at Gibbs in April 2015, and led the team to its first playoff appearance in six years that following November, according to the Plant City (Fla.) Observer and Tampa Bay Times. Gibbs went 6-5 in 2015 and 2-7 in 2016, per MaxPreps.
The other head coach on the list is Christopher MacFarland of Norwalk (Ohio) High. He has posted a 34-24 record there in six seasons.
Another applicant, Jeff Nelson, was Ozen’s head football coach from 2009-13, where he posted a 16-28 record. According to a newspaper report, Nelson was suspended for the first two games of 2013 because Ozen violated a two-year probation for practicing once during school hours but outside the athletic period. Nelson later became assistant head coach and math teacher at Central High School.
Other candidates include Deer Park offensive coordinator Nolan Patterson, Diboll offensive coordinator Chris Stump and Katy Cinco Ranch defensive coordinator and assistant head coach Chad Simmons.

I.C. Murrell: 721-2435. Twitter: @ICMurrellPANews

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About I.C. Murrell

I.C. Murrell was promoted to editor of The News, effective Oct. 14, 2019. He previously served as sports editor since August 2015 and has won or shared eight first-place awards from state newspaper associations and corporations. He was born in Memphis, Tennessee, grew up mostly in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, and graduated from the University of Arkansas at Monticello.

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