Puckett steps down as football coach, interviews for replacement take place next week

Lovejoy should get official word of its move to Class 4A next month.

But when the Leopards take the football field at the next classification, it will be without the only head coach the program has known.

Jim Bob Puckett has stepped down, but will remain as the district athletic director.

"There are so many responsibilities involved with being the athletic director, it became difficult for me to watch film or scout," Puckett said. "I feel like I wasn't able to give everything I had to the football team and that wasn't fair to them."

Puckett first contemplated stepping down during the Thanksgiving break and officially pulled the trigger Dec. 14. He informed the school board of his intentions Dec. 13 and told his players the Wednesday before winter break.

"It was heart wrenching telling those guys," Puckett said. "Especially since so many of them have been in the program since seventh grade and we've all grown close."

The position has drawn 192 applicants.

"I've been pouring through the applications and we have some quality candidates," Puckett said. "We have several head coaches or assistants that have won multiple state championships."

Puckett said the list of applicants did not include former Southlake Carroll head coach Todd Dodge, who has been rumored for a number of positions in the Metroplex. It does, however, include Lovejoy defensive coordinator Billy Thompson, who coached the team for a game in 2010 when Puckett was experiencing health problems.

Puckett said those prior health issues had no impact on his decision to step down as head coach.

"People thought Billy was our coach-in-waiting," Puckett said, "but we are all about the process. We want to do this right and make sure we pick the right person."

The top 12 candidates will be brought to campus to interview for the job beginning Monday. Puckett said the school district hopes to have a decision made by Jan. 20 or 23.

Seeing as how he will help hire his replacement, Puckett knows just what he is looking for.

"We want someone with a lot of energy and an eye for critical detail, all the way down to the seventh-grade level," he said. "We have accomplished a lot of great things with this program, but there is still so much room for improvement in everything we do."

That being said, Puckett and the Leopards have accomplished plenty together.

The Lovejoy program began with just freshmen in 2006, then playing a junior varsity/varsity hybrid schedule in 2007 and a straight varsity slate in 2008. The Leopards' deepest playoff run came with a trip to the Class 3A Division I Semifinals in 2009, which resulted in a 31-27 loss to Abilene Wylie. Lovejoy possessed state title aspirations again in 2010, but had a trio of starters suspended for violating team conduct rules at the end of the regular season and lost to Henderson, 36-14, in the quarterfinals.

In 2011, Puckett's last as head coach, the Leopards again advanced to the playoffs, losing to then-undefeated Celina in the second round.

"It may sound cliché, but from my time in Allen and McKinney, I learned that you have to have a vision of what you want in order to achieve success," Puckett said. "We were able to do that for awhile, but that's also part of the reason why I stepped down. I didn't have the laser-like focus on the team like I needed to anymore.

"This is still an exciting time for Lovejoy; we just needed a new voice, a new vision."

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