Marion County names DC Chris Kirksey new head coach

Marion County approved the promotion of defensive coordinator Chris Kirksey to fill its head coaching position vacated by Mike Swaney last month.

Kirksey spent the 2015 football season as a member of Swaney’s staff, but spent the previous 11 as head coach at Taylor County, where he managed a 50-62-1 record. In those 11 seasons, he took Taylor County to the playoffs three times in 2004, 2006 and 2013.

Marion County principal Glenn Tidwell said that a combination of Kirksey’s experience and the continuity he provides for both the coaching staff and the players all contributed to him being the choice for the Eagles.

“We had several good applicants that we were impressed with, but since he has been with us a year now, he just kind of stood out as the guy,” Tidwell said. “The players love him and the assistants think the world of him. It was just a good fit.”

The coaching staff will remain almost completely the same as a season ago with the obvious exception being the retirement of Swaney. Kirksey will move into the head coaching role and continue to coach the linebackers, and the other coaches will still hold their previous positions.

The team will run the same defense it has run for years, which is the one Kirksey began working on as an assistant alongside Swaney at Taylor County in 1996. The offense will experience only minor tweaks as it tries to move on from the graduation of ultra-successful athlete Lorenzo Smothers.

Other than that, Kirksey expects familiarity to be the key going forward.

“If it’s not broken, don’t fix it,” he said. “We want to continue what we’ve been doing.”

What the Eagles have been doing is establishing themselves as one of the premier high school programs in Class A. While Kirksey admitted there is a little pressure that comes along with taking over a program of that statute, he said it is no more than the pressure he puts on himself.

Luckily, he said, Swaney had done such a good job of putting a staff together over the years, that he’s going to have a lot of help from the assistants around him.

The key will be making some major replacements on the offensive line, where all but one starter from a year ago graduated, filling holes on the defensive line, at linebacker and one cornerback, and, of course, replacing Smothers.

“I think it can carry on,” Kirksey said of the team’s success. “But we can’t live on what the other guys have done here. We’ve got to make it our own. We will have to continue to work hard, get in the weight room and do all the things necessary to be successful.”

Marion County began its spring practice on Monday and will hold a scrimmage to close out the 10-day workout period on May 13.

This story was originally published May 2, 2016 at 2:35 PM with the headline "Marion County names DC Chris Kirksey new head coach."