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The Seahawks have formed a list of three finalists for their vacant head football coaching position and a recommendation for the next coach could come as early as Monday, athletics director Mark Karen said Friday.
Bradley Adams of Georgetown High School, B.J. Payne of Lexington (Ohio) High School and a third candidate who asked not to be named have made the final group to next lead the Hilton Head High football team.
"We think we're going to hit a home run with this," Karen said. "We feel very positive with our final three."
Karen formed a 12-person committee to help sift through more than 140 applications for the job before assembling an initial group of nine candidates. Of those, six interviewed in person while another three did so via telephone. Karen and the Hilton Head High administration then personally interviewed a group of four candidates Thursday night with superintendent Dr. Sean Alford in attendance before determining the final three Friday morning.
Adams has spent the last two years as head coach at Georgetown, compiling a 12-9 record with two playoff appearances. He's the first coach in Bulldogs history to have a winning record.
"If everyone from the community and all the people are together, you've got a chance to win championships," Adams said. "That's something that intrigued me and I felt a very positive sign for Hilton Head."
Adams, 31, runs a spread offense. He was a walk-on at Newberry College before earning a full scholarship.
"We were very impressed with his credentials, even for a young coach with not a lot of head coaching experience," Karen said. "He has a presence in the room. You just got a very good feeling that he would get the support of the community and the kids and the players in the school, because he represents himself well. And he's going to be the type of guy that you're not going to outwork him, and he's going to show you why you'd want to be a part of it."
Payne, meanwhile, has been the head coach at Lexington High School in Ohio since 2006. The 36-year-old is 36-24 during his tenure with the Minutemen and has registered two playoff appearances, something Lexington had done just once before his arrival. He's also sent 46 players to the college football level, including 10 that went on to play for FBS teams.
"To be able to bring (the Hilton Head) program back up to where it's been in the past and to make the community proud and to make the school proud of the team that represents them on Friday nights is a huge factor," Payne said of his desire to be the next coach of the Seahawks.
Several high-profile coaches called Karen unsolicited in order to voice their approval of Payne, who won three NCAA Division III national championships as a defensive tackle at the University of Mount Union in the mid-1990s. Arizona coach Rich Rodriguez, Cincinnati coach Butch Jones, new Illinois coach Tim Beckman and former South Carolina assistant Eric Wolford all encouraged his hiring.
The third and final candidate asked not to be named so he could personally tell his players that he had accepted another job, should he indeed be recommended for the position.
"I would hate to put my kids that work extremely hard for me through anything they don't deserve," he said.
The candidate added that he was still unsure whether he would accept the job if offered.
The next head coach will have the opportunity to bring along an offensive or defensive coordinator, provided they are a certified teacher and Hilton Head has the ability to place him within the teaching system. They'll also have the opportunity to evaluate current members of the coaching staff.
"We made the candidates aware we can't guarantee they can bring somebody," Karen said. "Everything depends on numbers as far as what's going to be open at a particular school. But ideally, it will be the head coach plus one."
Two of the candidates could possibly start immediately, as they've been informed by their school districts that they could opt out of their contracts early. Karen won't be able to officially offer the job to a candidate but rather recommend him to the school district, which in turn will have to approve the hire, but Karen said he expected that process to move quickly.
