SPRINGHILL – After a whirlwind couple of weeks in northern Webster Parish, North Webster Principal Jeff Franklin and Athletic Director John Ware can finally exhale.
A busy offseason of departures and hirings came to completion last Thursday when Austin Lay, an assistant football and baseball coach the past five years at North Webster, was named head baseball coach for the Knights.
Lay will replace Brian Fowler, who left North Webster two weeks ago for the same position at Taylor High School in Taylor, Arkansas.
Last fall, upon earning his bachelor’s degree from Southern Arkansas University, Lay was hired as a full-time coach and teacher. He is still pursuing his master’s degree at Northwestern State University.
“We have some really talented students who want to win and a staff of coaches who are dedicated to improving all of our programs,” Lay said in a written press release last week. “I am excited to lead our baseball program as we build on our past successes.”
Lay is a graduate of North Webster High School as well, giving the hire a hometown feel that should help earn the ear of the young athletes he will be tasked with coaching.
“Austin is a hometown boy,” Franklin said in the same press release. “We are very proud to have him on staff at North Webster High School. It is really great to have a North Webster graduate back at his alma mater as head baseball coach.”