It's certainly been a year of change for the Jefferson City athletic department. And that will continue to be the case in 2018.
The search for a new head football coach officially began Dec. 12. As for the Activities Director spot, the district will post the position sometime in the next couple weeks. Both could be filled by mid-February.
"Generally speaking, you would like to have all the AD's in position first," said Gary Verslues, assistant to the superintendent of secondary education. "We have excellent AD's filling in. We're in very good shape there. If you look at the football calendar, team activities start up right away at the first of the year. Districts are competitive. If we know we have an opening, let's get out ahead of everyone else and make sure we can land the best person we can no matter what the position is."
For now, Tim Thompson and Dennis Licklider are serving as co-Activities Directors. Chad Rizner and Robert Ndessokia are both assistant activities directors.
"We as a district and for my position, we are very fortunate to have the people we have in those positions," Verslues said.
The more pressing need may be finding the next head coach for Jays football, which has had three take over the position since Pete Adkins' departure following the 1994 season.
The Jays won nearly 88 percent of their games with Adkins, but they've won about 66 percent of the time since.
"Not to rush the process but the quicker you can go - and if you get an outstanding candidate - you need to get them," Verslues said.
As of Thursday morning, seven coaches have applied to replace Ted LePage, who was 86-46 in 12 season with Jefferson City.
Of the seven, three are from Missouri. The others are from Texas, Georgia, New Mexico and Oregon.
"We'll be thorough with the process and we won't leave any stone unturned," Verslues said. "We'll look at each applicant with a fine-toothed comb and make sure don't miss a possible diamond in the rough."
Whoever becomes the 25th coach in Jays football history could be facing even more change once the second high school opens.
By the 2021-22 school year, the new school will have four classes of students. That will drop the Jays from Class 6 to either Class 4 or 5, depending on enrollment.
This past year's classification cycle puts schools with 1,316-1,778 students in Class 5. Verslues said he expects there to be about 1,300 students at each school.
The upcoming change in classification could impact a coach's decision to apply.
"We've talked about that," Verslues said. "Maybe some applicants want to coach only for real big schools."
The addition of a second high school also affect's the AD spot.
The district can either hire one person to oversee both schools or have an AD for each school.
"The two criteria I look at the most is how can we best serve our coaches and our students," Verslues said. "Yet at the same time be the best stewards for our district patrons and our taxpayers. That can be a delicate balance sometimes, but it's absolutely the right thing to do."
In the immediate future, the district will hire an AD for Jefferson City High School and continue to research which option will be best when the time comes.
"We are still talking to other school districts who went from one high school to two high schools and how they structured their activities department," Verslues said. " We're taking a look at what other schools have done and getting input at what's worked and what hasn't. We're getting closer to making a decision on how we want to move forward."