Hennessey’s Hix shipping off to coach at Locust Grove

The search for a new head football coach and athletic director at Hennessey High School is underway.

Paul Hix on Monday was approved as the new head football coach at Locust Grove by that school’s board of education.

Hix said he will resign his football role quickly at Hennessey, but will stay on as athletic director until he makes the move.

“I’m hoping for a spring break transition, but it’s not always easy the way teacher contracts work,” Hix said on Wednesday.

“We talked this morning and I will work with him,” Hennessey Superintendent Jason Sternberger said on Thursday.

Meanwhile, the school has already begun the search for a successor.

“We’ve posted the position and started receiving applications already,” Sternberger said. “After Christmas break, we will begin checking references and calling people in.”

The move ends a fouryear run at Hennessey for Hix, one that’s seen improvement on the field each season.

The Eagles were 0-9 in 2019 before going 3-6 the following year.

Hennessey just missed the playoffs in 2021 while going 5-5 and this season the Eagles were 7-4 and finished third in their district before losing to Chandler in the first round of the playoffs.

He faces a similar rebuilding effort at Locust Grove.

The Pirates program has gone 2-8 each of the last four seasons.

He’ll have at his disposal his own son, Titan Hix, to help with the effort.

As a freshman this season, the younger Hix threw for 2,536 yards, ran for 1,052 and accounted for a total of 44 touchdowns.

“It doesn’t hurt when your son is a college prospect,” Hix said.

Hix said multiple factors led to his decision to accept the new job.

“Most of the time for coaches, it’s one big thing,” he said of making a move. “In this instance, it was several smaller, marginal things.”

One is the area of the state.

“I played college football around there,” said Hix, who graduated from Mannford and played at Northeastern State in Tahlequah. “All of my family lives in Tulsa or in the area east of Tulsa.”

He said he’ll soon have some other family obligations in the area.

And then there’s what Locust Grove is offering.

The Pirate program has dropped about $2 million into new facilities, which includes turf, a weight room, coaches’ offices and a fieldhouse.

“They’ve spent a bunch of money on football. They are revamping the whole thing,” Hix said. “They went through a period where they were really successful and that’s what they want to try to get back to. That’s appealing to me.”

However, Hix said he didn’t pursue the job.

“I didn’t apply. I wasn’t looking,” he said. “I had friends and family in that area that when the job came open, they got the ball rolling. It was very casual at first and everything I felt was important, they were able to come through with.”