Cherokee Trail has a new football coach in Dain Mangnall. (Matt Minton/JacksActionShots.com)
Cherokee Trail has turned to assistant Dain Mangnall as its next head football coach, the school announced on Friday morning.
Mangnall was the program’s defensive coordinator, and had been since the school opened. He’s also a teacher at Cherokee Trail.
“In my opinion, it’s the best job in the state,” Mangnall told CHSAANow.com on Friday.
Mangnall takes over for Monte Thelen, who resigned after the 2015 season. Thelen was the only coach in the history of the school, which opened in 2003. Mangnall coached with Thelen during his entire stint at Cherokee Trail, and with him at Rangeview prior to that.
“I’ve worked for him the last 17 years of my coaching life, and I owe a whole of respect and gratitude for the tradition that he’s established at CT,” Mangnall said of Thelen. “He’s made CT football what it is, and I’m just real proud to be able to step in. I’ve got some big shoes to fill there.”
Cherokee Trail went 5-5 last season, and 3-7 in 2014.
But the Cougars were 10-3 in 2013, and 12-2 in 2012. They went to the Class 5A championship game in that 2012 season, and surprised many around the state when they were locked in a scoreless tie with Valor Christian in the fourth quarter. Valor eventually won that game 9-0.
Mangnall was a big part of the gameplan on that day, which was surprisingly effective against Eagles star Christian McCaffrey — the same player who just finished second in Heisman voting.
Steve Carpenter, Cherokee Trail’s athletic director, said the aim is to return to that type of success. He added that Mangnall’s plan stood out in the interview process.
New Cherokee Trail football coach Dain Mangnall. (Courtesy Cherokee Trail HS)
“He has a strong commitment to Cherokee Trail football and the traditions that we have, and he has a good plan for bouncing us right back and making us a contender,” Carpenter said. “And we’re looking to do that immediately.”
So how to return to the level of success enjoyed a few seasons ago?
“It’s just a lot of hard work,” Mangnall said. “I’ve been the defensive coordinator there for 13 years, and I’m pretty proud of what we’ve accomplished, and have been a pretty big part of our success. It’s one of the reasons I was hired at Cherokee Trail, obviously.
“We’re just going to get back to work and do what we do, and get these feeder programs — there’s a lot of potential there. We’ve got kids here right now that can play football and are ready to get back to work. We’re already in the weight room. We’re just moving on, moving forward.”
The feeder programs, specifically, will play a big role should Cherokee Trail bounce back.
“The biggest piece that he sold us on was getting out into our community and making connections with our feeder programs,” Carpenter said. “That’s massive because it has been very stagnant. So we’re going to have a big grassroots program, really letting the kids in our area know that we want them and know that we have something exciting happening here.”
Said Mangnall: “We want to keep the kids that are supposed to come to Cherokee Trail at Cherokee Trail. We certainly want our feeder programs happy and healthy.”
The job was widely seen as one of the premier openings around the state. Carpenter said there were at least 30 applicants, and he narrowed the search to three finalists.
“I wanted to be very clear, very specific,” he said, “and it worked out very well.”
Asked about his overall vision for the program, Mangnall said, “My vision is not a lot different than coach Thelen’s vision was, and that’s to make our community proud of our program. Sure, we want to win football games, but we want to continue the tradition of building character and making academics the No. 1 priority, and building young men first. And we want to win football games.”
It’s a program that returns a lot of talent next season, including two quarterbacks who split time in 2015, leading receiver KJ Sapp, and two-way standout Max Gonzales.
“We’ve got a lot of good kids,” Mangnall said. “It’s just a matter of how hard they want to push themselves, how hard they want to work in the offseason and make the commitment to get back to our regular selves.”
Follow football’s coaching changes this offseason on this page.