NITRO HAS PLAN FOR NEW COACH
Publication:
Published: 07/31/2002
Page: 1B
Headline: NITRO HAS PLAN FOR NEW COACH
Byline: JASON MARTIN
Robert "Little" Burdette is still Nitro High's football coach, which
comes as a surprise considering he resigned last month and is living in South
Carolina.
He's currently waiting for his contract to come through as a football and girls
basketball coach at Waccamaw High, and has yet to
file papers back here.
With Nitro's first official practices slated to begin Monday, that could
otherwise be a problem, except that Scott Tinsley, the offensive coordinator,
is a lock as Burdette's successor.
"My recommendation is going to be that we stay in-house," said
Principal Paul McClanahan. "Scott's our acting coach, and we'd like him to
remain the coach, but we have other coaches who are staff members who we can go
to if we have to."
McClanahan referred to the state policy that school system employees get
preference in coaching hires over "outside" coaches, but that likely
won't be a factor in Nitro's situation.
He said Burdette's formal resignation should come through next week, but the
entire posting and approval process could extend close to September. By then,
Tinsley should have either won or lost his first game as coach.
"Scott's been an awful big part of the past seven or eight years
here," McClanahan said.
His impact is huge, in fact, as the architect of the Wildcats' whiz-bang
offense that won the 1998 Class AAA state title. And because Burdette's
leadership style was one of democracy instead of dictatorship, Tinsley was
basically a co-coach anyway. With him as head coach, Nitro will limit Burdette's
loss, and focus instead on improving last year's garish 3-7 record.