Board taps Kilby to lead Lions

By LPR Staff

Editor/POST-REGISTER

The Lions will have new leadership on the football field, come fall.

In a 5-2 vote on Monday evening, the Lockhart ISD Board of Trustees voted to offer the Head Coach/High School Sports Coordinator position to Paul Kilby, formerly the Athletic Director and Head Coach at Mathis High School.

In his two years in Mathis, Kilby led his

Pirates to a winning record, finishing the 2010 season at 10-3, and three rounds deep in playoff action. In 2009, the Pirates were tied for the District 31-3A Championship, and went two rounds into the playoffs.

Members of the selection committee charged with reviewing applications for the position, which was vacated last month after the board voted to change the duties associated with the head coaching job, said part of the reason Kilby, who spent several years as an offensive coordinator before taking the helm at Mathis, was his offensive strategy. Under former Head Coach Robin Rapp, the Lions traditionally used a spread offense. Kilby, however, uses a “Slot-T,” which some say is better suited to the athletes on the Lions’ roster.

The Board engaged in little public discussion about offering Kilby the position. However, they convened in an executive session to discuss the matter for more than two hours on Monday evening, after which time Trustees Juan Alvarez and Tom Guyton voted against offering him the position.

They did not offer explanations for their decision.

Other members of the Board, however, were enthusiastic about greeting Kilby, who arrived at Lockhart High School shortly after the final vote was taken and the contract was offered.

Kilby greeted trustees, parents and other members of the public, and said he’d been “studying up” on the Lions – so much so, in fact, that we was able to identify the names of several Lion players by position and jersey number.

Athletic Director Melinda Kirst said on Tuesday morning that she was excited to see the up-tempo brand of football Kilby will bring to Lion Stadium. “We welcome [him] and are very excited to enter a new era of Lion Football, with Coach Kilby’s past success in coaching,” she said.

Kilby comes aboard during the second year of an uphill climb for the Lions, who went 1-9 last season, and are competing in a district full of much larger, much wealthier schools. However, Trustees expressed enthusiasm after the meeting that Kilby’s coaching style and experience would be able to help the Lions grow a winning program.

Kilby said he was excited to return to Central Texas, having coached for three years in San Marcos before accepting the position in Mathis. He also coached from 1998-2005 in Quinlan, Texas, where he was an offensive coordinator and also worked with the track, powerlifting and wrestling teams. At the collegiate level, Kilby was the assistant offensive coordinator and recruiting coordinator for the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada, where he coached a number of All-Stars and All-Canadians.