By By Chandler Myers
special to the standard
Students and faculty at Escambia County High School were left in shock
Friday afternoon just hours before school let out for Christmas break as Escambia County Blue Devils Head Coach Kyle Davis was relieved of his duties as head coach.
Principal Harvey Means and other members of the administration informed Davis, who had been the head coach for the past five years, of the decision.
In an interview Monday morning, Means said the decision was made to move the program in a different direction. He added no decision on a replacement has been made.
Expectations are important for every athletic program, and they seem to be the things leading to this coaching change. Davis said expectations are different every principal, but he never had any marked out for him by Means.
With the release of Davis, school administration will now attempt to find a coach that can match or better the success Davis had brought to the Blue Devils.
The success that Davis brought to a Blue Devils program that was in shambles before his arrival includes two playoff appearances, seven players playing college football and a high graduation rate for his athletes.
Davis said he felt he had done a good job of restoring pride to Atmore football.
Davis said. “We established a credible program that had been down for several years. Only two kids that played football in this program have not graduated since I have been the head coach, which says a lot for our graduation rate. We also made a couple of playoff appearances, which brought some pride back to Atmore football.”
While Davis is not the head coach at Escambia County High School, he is still employed as a teacher with Escambia County High School.
Davis said as a coach he will miss his players, and if it comes to moving to another school he will miss the city that he has called home.
Davis said the one thing that bothers him about the news is the timing.
Being released from coaching duties might conger up thoughts of what could have been done differently.
Davis said he would not change one thing about the job he has done.