Rick Owens
Rick Owens announced as new Gobbler AD after unanimous board decision
(Posted 1/28/2010 08:40 am)
Cuero School District has a new athletic director as a result of action taken by the school board Wednesday night.
With a unanimous vote, trustees named Rick Owens as the district’s athletic director and head football coach. He succeeds Mark Reeve who resigned earlier this month to take a coaching position with Texas Lutheran University.
Also at Wednesday’s meeting, trustees completed the annual evaluation and contract renewal of Supt. Henry Lind.
It was a four-and-one-half hour meeting for the board with about half that time spent in closed session on Lind’s evaluation. When the meeting opened to the public, the vote to extend Lind’s contract for another year was approved on a five-to-two vote. Voting in favor were B.J. Drehr, Carlyle Stakes, Emily Davis, Pat Koranek and Gerard Gonzales.Voting against the extension were Lynnie Jalufka and Johnny Blackwell. Lind is currently serving his sixth year as Cuero’s superintendent.
Earlier in the meeting, trustees closed the session to discuss appointment of the new athletic director. Closed about 30 minutes, when the board returned and named Owens the new AD, an audience of mostly Cuero coaches erupted in applause.
Thanking the board, Owens stated, “I am blessed to live here in Cuero.”
Owens, 42, has been a teacher-coach in Cuero since 2005 serving as offensive line coach, assistant head coach and assistant track coach.
A graduate of Ingleside High School in 1986, he earned his degree from Southwest Texas State in 1990. His coaching career has included seven years at Taft High School, eight years at Rockport High School, and one year at Aransas Pass.
He and his wife, Rachael, have two children, Kelsi, 15; and Ethan, 12. Rachael is a second grade teacher in Cuero.
Owens said the Cuero coaches have been talking to their athletes in recent weeks since Reeve resigned. “We’ve been telling the kids, it doesn’t matter what happens, we are going to keep on going. We are going to stay the course.”
The Gobbler football program just completed its seventh consecutive undefeated district season and its fifth trip to the semi-finals out of the last six seasons.
Owens is looking at possibly filling two coaching vacancies over the next few months.
Also with Class 3A realignment announcements coming Monday, he will is facing game scheduling for the next two years.
