Craig Farnsworth named head man at special board meeting
By Kevin Pierson, kpierson@mariettatimes.com
In the search for a coach to guide their football team, not very many high schools are given the opportunity to have someone with a state championship on their resume take the reigns.
So, consider the Marietta Tigers one of the lucky ones.
Marietta officially hired Craig Farnsworth, who guided the Parkersburg Big Reds to the West Virginia state championship in 2001, as its new football coach during a special meeting of the Marietta City Schools Board of Education Wednesday night.
"I think it's a good situation because I think Marietta really supports football. I think they want a winner. They've had sometimes where they've been successful in the past," Farnsworth said. "I think it's a place that can be successful. It's got a lot going for it."
The Tigers found themselves in need of a football coach when former head coach Andy Schob accepted the job at county rival Warren on Feb. 8.
That move by Schob prompted the Tigers to begin the search for a new coach, posting the application through the Ohio High School Athletic Association Web site.
Marietta had 30 applicants submit resumes for the position, said Marietta Athletic Director Rick Guimond, with the hiring committee ultimately settling on a trio of finalists for interviews.
In addition to Farnsworth, Marietta also interviewed Todd McCoy of Parkersburg and Bill Cieslewski of Belpre for the head coaching vacancy before ultimately deciding on Farnsworth.
"We were looking for somebody who had successful head coaching experience, who had been a proven program builder and had been a winner or had developed a winning program," Guimond said. "He's been doing this for a while, and not just at one place has he been successful."
Farnsworth is only 36 years old, but he has 17 years of coaching experience, having begun coaching at his alma mater of Parkersburg just a year after graduating.
A 1991 graduate of PHS, Farnsworth started coaching with the Big Reds in 1992 and served as a defensive coordinator for three years and offensive coordinator in 2001.
It was in 2001 that Farnsworth took over the reigns of the PHS program as the interim head coach when former Big Red coach Marshall Burdette was dismissed due to violations of school policy.
"My record was 11-2 as head coach and we finished 12-2 and won the state championship," Farnsworth said.
Winning the state title wasn't enough to keep Farnsworth in Parkersburg, though.
After serving as a substitute teacher at the high school for five years Farnsworth was still out of the loop when it came time to find a full time teaching job in the district.
"I didn't know how much longer I would have to be a substitute before I had a full time teaching job," Farnsworth explained.
The success that the Big Reds enjoyed earned him plenty of attention throughout West Virginia, and some of those schools had the teaching job to offer, and so Farnsworth left his alma mater for Musselman High School in the panhandle.
Following three years at Musselman, Farnsworth left for Dutch Fork High School in Irma, S.C. where he is currently serving as the assistant head coach.
At Dutch Fork, Farnsworth served as defensive coordinator until 2008 when he went Hammond School, a private school in Columbia, S.C. where he was defensive coordinator for a team that went 12-1 and won the state title.
This past season he returned to Dutch Fork as assistant head coach with the intention of applying for the head coaching vacancy that opened at the end of the season.
Life, however, has a funny way of changing plans.
Farnsworth's wife, Jo, was transferred back to the Mid-Ohio Valley for her job and suddenly they pair of longtime residents were heading home.
The fact that Farnsworth's wife is being transferred to the area for her job is a definite plus for Marietta, because it means that the Tigers didn't have to have a job in the school system to get Farnsworth as their head coach.
That's important because a job is something the Tigers currently don't have to offer.
"There is not a job that has been offered to him right now," said Marietta Board of Education president Greg Gault. "We have a lot of movement in the district right now and there may be a position that comes open for him, but there's nothing guaranteed right now."
With the late start due to the fact that until February the Tigers still had a coach, Marietta had to move quickly to fill the vacancy.
Now that it has been filled, Farnsworth plans to spend his weekends traveling to Marietta to begin putting together his coaching staff and meeting his players and parents.
"I have a lot of confidence in coach Farnsworth. I think he is organized enough to be able to pull all this together and get off to, albeit late, a good start," Guimond said.
Farnsworth's approval as head football coach came on a unanimous vote of the board during the special meeting Wednesday after interviews with the three finalists had been conducted the past couple weeks.
"I just think it's a great opportunity. I'm thankful to Bill Lee the principal and Rick Guimond the athletic director. I think they had a thorough interview process. I went through two separate interviews to get this," Farnsworth said.
Originally Published in the Marietta Times on 4-8-2010