Here are southwest Missouri's new high school football head coaches in 2023
About a dozen new head coaches will take the sidelines across southwest Missouri this year with some replacing legends while others hope to turn their programs into winners.
A few legacy hires see alums come home and coach the teams they once played for. Other programs made splashy hires by bringing in coaches with promising resumes.
Here are the area's new coaches.
Bolivar - Jamie LaSalle
LaSalle replaces Glen Johnson as the Liberators' head coach after serving as an assistant coach at Miller. He has previous head coaching stops at Mount Vernon and Greenfield.
Camdenton - Par Pitts
The Lakers promoted from within to replace Jeff Shore with Par Pitts taking over the program. The Camdenton grad helped win a state championship with the Lakers in 1986 as a player. Pitts has been a head coach at Palmyra, Odessa and Troy. He's been on the Lakers' coaching staff since 2014.
Happy to announce that last night the Board of Education approved our recommendation to hire Par Pitts as the new Laker Head Football Coach! One of Pappy's finest leading the way again!
Whoop! Whoop!https://t.co/UoueTgrTII— Camdenton Lakers (@lkrathletics) January 10, 2023
Carl Junction - Tod Hafner
After 19 seasons as the head coach at NAIA William Penn, Hafner will take over the Carl Junction program after he served as an assistant coach for the Bulldogs in 1994 and as the team's head coach from 1997-2000. He went 112-93-1 at William Penn and replaces Doug Buckmaster who retired after 10 seasons as the CJHS head coach.
Glendale - Joel Heman
Heman was thrown into the fire in recent days after Springfield Pubic Schools announced he would be the program's interim head coach as it parted ways with Mike Mauk. Heman was the Falcons' head coach from 2008-11 where he went 17-25 before leaving to become a sales manager. He has remained connected to Glendale over the years — notably, his daughter, Reilly Heman, was the girls' soccer Class 3 Offensive Player of the Year in 2023 and now plays at Missouri State. Heman has been back with the Glendale football program since the beginning of the summer.
Clever - Willie Howard
Clever promoted Howard to head coach after serving as an assistant since the football program's first full season of varsity football in 2020. He's been an assistant at Salem, Buffalo and Rolla along with a head coaching stint at Rolla from 2011-15 with the Bulldogs going 10-42 in those years.
Diamond - Matt McKee
McKee was promoted to head coach after serving as Diamond's defensive coordinator under Mac Whitehead. He's entering his 19th season as a high school coach which includes five as the head coach at Liberal.
Hillcrest - Keenan Ganz
Ganz makes the move over from Republic where he was the Tigers' special teams and defensive backs coach. He's also previously served as the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at Morningside University.
We are pleased to announce the hiring of Keenan Ganz as the new Hillcrest Head Football coach. Please join us in welcoming him to The Hill. pic.twitter.com/YNfUsECjIv
— Hillcrest High School (@Hillcrest_SPS) February 13, 2023
Miller - Derek Hill
Hill finally gets his crack at head coaching duties as he's served on the Cardinals' staff since 2000. Among assistant coaching duties have included stints as the team's offensive and defensive coordinator, the latter of which he was a year ago in addition to overseeing quarterbacks and running backs.
Mountain View - Jansen Acklin
The Acklin name is well-known around Mountain View-Liberty and that will continue with one becoming the head coach of one of the better programs in the area. Acklin, a Liberty grad, has been on the Eagles' staff since 2020. The younger coach graduated from the program in 2015 before playing college ball at Evangel.
Ozark - Jeremy Cordell
Cordell makes the move from Lincoln-Way Central in Illinois to become the head coach at Ozark. He had been the head coach at the Chicago suburb school since 2015 where he helped rebuild the team into a state contender. Before Lincoln-Way, he was the head coach at Glenbard South where he won multiple conference titles. He has over a decade of head coaching experience along with assistant coaching gigs in the Chicago metro area.
Parkview - Cameron Bruffett
Bruffett moves over to Parkview from Logan-Rogersville where he spent the last eight years, including the last five as the team's offensive coordinator. Prior to Logan-Rogersville, he played four years at Evangel along with a year in the Arena Football League.
@athleticsatsps @ozarksozone @Wyattwheeler_NL @ksprsports pic.twitter.com/FEpP5VmhFN
— Papa Viking (@TheView_Sports) February 21, 2023
Rolla - Derick Heflin
The 2004 graduate of Rolla is coming home after serving as the head coach at Washington since 2016. He's also served as an assistant at Houston and Waynesville. Over the last four seasons, Heflin led Washington to a 31-13 record.
Webb City - Ryan McFarland
McFarland steps into the biggest shoes in the state as he takes over for legendary coach John Roderique. McFarland is a 2001 Webb City graduate who started his career as a Cardinals volunteer while attending college. He was then hired as an assistant from 2006-13 before coaching in southeast Kansas before becoming the head coach at Seneca from 2016-20. Over the last few seasons, McFarland has served on Roderique's staff as an assistant.
Help us welcome the new Head Football Coach of the Webb City Cardinals Football Program, Ryan McFarland! Congrats to Coach Mac! @coach_mcfarland
— Webb City Football (@wcfootballcards) January 11, 2023
Wyatt D. Wheeler is a reporter and columnist with the Springfield News-Leader. You can contact him at 417-371-6987, by email at wwheeler@news-leader.com or X at @WyattWheeler_NL. He's also the host of the weekly "Wyatt's World Podcast" on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and other podcasting platforms.
This article originally appeared on Springfield News-Leader: New Southwest Missouri high school football coaches in 2023
