By CHRIS HOBBS
HobbsDailyReport.com
HUDSON – South Caldwell High football has come virtually full circle with assistant coach Marc Kirkpatrick now coordinating the program on an interim basis.
Kirkpatrick, as assistant football coach for the Spartans, is the son of the school’s first head football coach, Don (Red) Kirkpatrick, and he’s a former South Caldwell athlete.
MARC KIRKPATRICK
Former Spartans quarterback and assistant coach has been named his alma mater’s interim head coach.
On Tuesday, Spartans athletic director Jeff Parham confirmed Sean McMenomy – last season’s head coach at South Caldwell – has resigned and won’t return. He taught history, coming to South Caldwell last season after 12 seasons as head coach at two high schools in the Minneapolis, Minn., area.
The Spartans went 2-9 last season, including 2-5 in the Northwestern 3A-4A to tie for fifth place. They were outscored 505-218 in 11 games.
Parham said Marc Kirkpatrick, 51 and a 1984 South Caldwell graduate, will coordinate preparing the Spartans for their 41st varsity football season, which begins Aug. 25 with a home game against Kings Mountain.
South Caldwell began spring workouts on Monday.
McMenomy was hired in late March of 2016 to guide the Spartans, following the resignation of Butch Carter after 15 seasons (Carter was later hired by Alexander Central as head coach). He previously coached seven seasons at DeLaSalle (Minn.) with a 62-18 record and also spent five seasons leading Southwest High in Minneapolis.
South Caldwell — in a new offense under McMenomy — started last season 0-8 before winning back-to-back games over St. Stephens and Fred T. Foard.
Marc Kirkpatrick is a Nationally Board Certified physical education teacher who is in his 19th year at his alma mater. He played varsity football for his father, throwing for five touchdowns as a junior (Parham also played on that team) and leading the Spartans in scoring as a senior in 1983 with three TD runs and six TD passes.
Only five other men have been in charge of South Caldwell’s football program since Red Kirkpatrick retired after the 1983 season – Tommy Pursley, John Mackey, former Spartans lineman Dan Hardee, Carter and McMenomy.
When the Caldwell County Schools merged Hudson and Granite Falls to form South Caldwell, which opened in 1977, Red Kirkpatrick was the first Spartans head coach. He guided them to a Northwestern 3A title and to the state 3A title game and an 11-3 record.
That first South Caldwell team featured Marc Kirkpatrick’s brother, Donnie, at quarterback (he is a former head football coach at Chattanooga and now offense coordinator at NCAA FSC champ James Madison) and star wide receiver Joe Davis. They starred as juniors on the final varsity football team at Granite Falls, under Red Kirkpatrick.
SOUTH CALDWELL’S HEAD VARSITY FOOTBALL COACHES
Coach Years
Don (Red) Kirkpatrick 1977-83
Tommy Pursley 1984-1986
John Mackey 1987-early 1990
Dan Hardee 1990-2000
Butch Carter 2001-2015
Sean McMenomy 2016
Program highlights: Second in state 3A in 1977, the year school opened… school record for wins is 12 in 2012… Went 32-6 over a three-year stretch that began with a 9-3 team in 2010… Won conference titles in 1977, 1994, 2011, 2012.