Marble Falls coaching changes are about opportunities

When Keri Timmerman accepted the position of football head coach and athletic director Marble Falls Independent School District in December 2023, most correctly concluded he’d hire some coaches to fill his football staff.

What few knew at the time were how many head coaches would resign or retire before the end of the 2023-24 school year.

“Obviously a lot of times change at the top creates natural opportunities for people to change the positions they’re in,” Timmerman said. “No one has been asked to leave. There’s been no changes on my side.”

Still, the school district is looking to hire five new head coaches: volleyball, boys basketball, boys soccer, girls soccer and cross country. And perhaps a golf coach. Timmerman indicated there’s not a self-imposed hard deadline to make the hires.

“We’re working through several things, setting up interviews for volleyball and basketball,” he said. “It’s a slow process on decisions to make sure we take our time and make sure they’re the right fit.”

Going into the school year, officials were certain a new golf head coach would have to be hired after the abrupt resignation of Ricky Blackington in July 2023. Because of the timing — officials simply didn’t have the time to post the job and conduct interviews before the beginning of the 2023-24 school year — Lonnie Tackitt, who was the head coach before he retired at the end of the 2020-21 school year, agreed to take over the program for this school year.

Around the time the school year started, cross country head coach Chris Schrader indicated he was strongly leaning toward retiring by June 2024 and turned his paper work to make it official.

“Coach Schrader had already turned in his resignation,” Timmerman said. “He’s done a great job.”

Once the spring semester began, Timmerman conducted individual meetings with each coach to get to know them.

After Spring Break, the school district posted that it was seeking a new volleyball head coach. Timmerman said Kait Goertz stepped down from the position and will become an assistant track and field coach and remain an assistant girls basketball coach on head coach John Berkman’s staff.

Timmerman noted that Goertz said “this is something I want to do. This is a great change for the girls.”

“She does a great job with our basketball team and our track teams as well,” he said.

Twelve days later, Travis Crain resigned as the boys basketball head coach.

“Coach Crain has been apart of the community for a long time,” the athletic director said. “He was a little frustrated about how the year had gone. He looked at the situation and said, ‘I think they need a new voice. I need a break and to step back.’ He’s still going to be our (Mustang) Stadium manager on Friday nights (during home football games).”

The boys soccer season ended April 2 in a playoff loss to Boerne High and nine days later head coach Rick Hoover announced he. was “retiring from coaching.”

Timmerman said Hoover had told people he had been considering retiring for months before he actually did, noting he wanted to be on the Mustangs’ sideline through the end of the 2024 season.

“Coach Hoover had been in a position where he had been bouncing the idea around,” Timmerman said. “He’s had a lot of success.”

The athletic director also accepted Abigail Blunt’s resignation as the girls soccer head coach to join the Long Creek High School staff, which is part of New Braunfels Independent School District.

“I thought we were going to keep her,” he said. “She has a chance to open a new high school. Her husband (Roque Palomino) will join her as well. That was really a surprise. You look for opportunities like that. You built what you could. It was an opportunity for her to spread her wings and have her and husband on the same staff. We’ll miss her. She helped lead (Fellowship of Christian Athletes).”

Over the weekend, Timmerman announced the hire of Karl Bielfeldt as the Mustangs new strength and conditioning coordinator. Bielfeldt served as a football, soccer and powerlifting coach at Leander High School. Earlier this semester, Josh Gilbert was hired as the football program’s offensive coordinator and offensive line. Gilbert comes to Marble Falls from Lockhart High School. The two communities are very similar, and Timmerman said Gilbert’s ability to develop and train athletes is among the reasons for his hire.

Timmerman noted one reason Marble Falls ISD officials hired him is because the community said it wanted an athletic director who would help develop coaches and help them climb the ladder to perhaps one day be head coaches and athletic administrators, too. That’s why he views the changes in the department as an opportunity instead of an obstacle.

“Everyone is being challenged to be our best,” he said. “I was also hired to help develop coaches and build inside the program. There are some coaches who look at where they’re at and what they want to do long term and ask ‘is it OK if I stay in this role?’ I didn’t know there were changes coming. I think it was a timing issue for everyone. It’s hard to make those decisions, especially if you love the community you’re in and you don’t want to leave.”

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