Courtesy of The Greenwood Commonwealth
Carroll Academy head football John David Higginbotham will not be back for a third season. Carroll athletic director Steve Flemming said this morning the school board voted Tuesday night not to renew Higginbotham's contract. "He has worked hard, and he's a good football coach. But we needed to change direction with our program," said Flemming, who will take over as Carroll's headmaster in June. "We wish him well in the future. He will stay on at Carroll through the end of the school year unless he chooses to leave." Flemming wouldn't discuss why the school board decided to go in a different direction, but he did say it wasn't based solely on wins and losses. "The only thing I can say is that I've got several names already, and that we will start a search for a new coach immediately," he said. "We will try to get someone in here in the next few weeks." Higginbotham was hired three months prior to the 2008 season for his first head coaching job at the varsity level at the age of 36. He took over a floundering program that had gone winless the year before and hadn't had a winning season since 2003. The Rebels went 0-11 in his first season and then snapped a 28-game losing streak in the second game of the 2009 season with a 38-6 rout of Sharkey-Issaquena. Carroll went on to finish 3-8 this past season. Whoever is hired to replace Higginbotham will be the fifth head coach in the last six years. Even though the Rebels lose 11 seniors from the 2009 teams, Flemming believes the new coach will have some good players to work with. "We had a strong sophomore class this past season. All 10 were major contributors, and we also went 5-2 in junior high and finished second in our conference," Flemming said. Before coming to Carroll, Higginbotham spent the previous six years at Madison-Ridgeland Academy, the final two as the head junior high coach. He served as the varsity defensive coordinator in his first four years at the school. When Flemming takes over as headmaster in June, he will hand over the athletic director title to baseball coach Sim Shanks. "He's been around Carroll for a while and knows what needs to be done," Flemming said. "Plus, he's easy to get along with. He will do a fine job for us."
