ELKINS — Thurman Shaw, an assistant football coach at Elkins since 2003, has been promoted to head coach.
Shaw replaces Aaron Clark, who spent the past 21 seasons with the Elks’ program and the last 13 as head coach. Clark, the district’s athletic director, will continue his duties as Elkins AD.
“I’m real excited,” Shaw said. “This is a great opportunity to be a head coach. I’ve been real fortunate. I had a chance to be mentored by a great coach and a great man for 10 years.
Profile
Thurman Shaw
AGE: 54
SCHOOL: Elkins
COACHING EXPERIENCE: Spent past 10 seasons as assistant coach at Elkins. … Defensive coordinator for the Elks since 2008. … Also had four-year stint as assistant at Prairie Grove.
PLAYING EXPERIENCE: College, University of Arkansas, 1977-81
NOTABLE: Shaw replaces Aaron Clark, the head coach at Elkins since 2003. … Clark will continue at Elkins as the district’s athletic director, a position he already held.
“I know the kids so well and I think we’ve got a bright future.”
Clark informed the Elkins school board in March of his plans to step down as head coach. In his 13 seasons, the Elks were 63-74-1 under Clark and made the postseason five times. He also spent eight seasons at Elkins as an assistant under former coach Steve Denzer.
“It wasn’t an easy decision,” Clark said. “For 27 years I’ve been coaching football and my head is saying this is right for the program. But my heart is saying, what am I going to do?
“About three or four months ago, the administrators brought up the idea to me, and I wasn’t forced out in any way. But athletic director has become such a big job and it’s hard to do that and be a coach at the same time.”
Shaw, 54, played at Arkansas from 1977-81. He started his career with the Razorbacks as a defensive lineman and finished on the offensive line. Shaw was coached at Arkansas by two position coaches — Monte Kiffin and Larry Beightol — who would go onto the NFL as assistants.
“A lot of what I do in coaching I learned from coach Beightol,” Shaw said. “He was a great coach and I learned a lot from that man.”
One of Shaw’s first orders of business as head coach is filling out his staff. The Elkins district has approved an additional assistant coach for the future, meaning the Elks are in need of two new assistants with Shaw’s promotion.
“The school board has been outstanding in this process,” Clark said. “There were things that I asked for when doing this and one of those things was an additional assistant coach. And the board has approved an additional coach who will coach both football and basketball.”
Justin Taggert, an Elkins assistant for the past three seasons, will remain on Shaw’s staff.
“Not many teams have three-man staffs,” Shaw said. “We’ve needed a fourth person for a long time.”
Clark said 36 applications — some from as far off as Minnesota and North Carolina —were received for the head coaching position. Elkins interviewed five finalists last week before selecting Shaw.
“I had to call the other gentlemen we interviewed, and I told them it was a very difficult decision but also a very easy one,” Clark said. “Thurman deserves the chance to be a head coach.”