BREAKING: Holliday ISD announces Atwood as next AD
The Holliday ISD School Board announced Alice AD and Head Football Coach Kyle Atwood as the school’s next director of athletics. Atwood replaces the retired Frank Johnson as the next leader of the Eagles’ athletics program.
“First of all I would like to thank the school board for allowing me the opportunity to be here,” Atwood told the board. “The five of us are extremely blessed to be a part of this school district and athletic program. I know that it was a tough process for you guys. I can assure you that we’re going to go to work and we’re going to make sure that our kids are taken care of and are challenged and prepared in whatever it is that we are doing.”
“Whenever I saw that Coach Johnson was retiring, I knew that my family would like to move back this direction. I grew up in the Lubbock area and my wife grew up in San Angelo. I began to do some research and over that time, I kept getting the exact same message from people whether it was people in the Wichita Falls area or coaches that have coached against Holliday, they all said the same thing – you aren’t going to find a better school in the state of Texas academically. You aren’t going to find better parent involvement and support. You’re not going to find a better athletic program that is competitive in everything that they do in the state of Texas. This is something that would be really good for myself and my family. I threw my name in the hat and fortunately it worked out.”
In 11 seasons as a head coach, Atwood owns a 51-64 overall record, going 15-36 at San Angelo Grape Creek from 2012-16 and 36-28 at Alice from 2017-22. He brings 16 years coaching experience after beginning his career at Alice as an assistant in 2007 before moving on to San Angelo Central.
“We received about 60 applications,” Holliday Superintendent Cody Carroll said. “It was the highest quality field I’ve ever had to go through as far as applicants as we knew it would be with the quality of job we have here at Holliday. We wound up interviewing 13 different candidates which is way too many but with the quality but we wanted to be sure we were as thorough as we could be to make sure we found the right candidate. We spent about 20 hours this past week going through those candidates. Once we decided Coach Atwood was the best candidate, we went to the board and had a discussion and decided he was the right guy for the job.”
Throughout his five years as an assistant, Atwood served as the special teams coordinator, receivers coach and boys head track and field coach.
At Grape Creek in 2012, he led the Eagles to the first two playoff appearances in school history and one winning season, hitting a high-water mark of six wins in his final season.
Moving back to Alice in 2017, Atwood took the Coyotes to the regional finals in his first year, logging his most single-season wins with a 9-4 record. In six seasons, he led Alice to four playoff appearances, advancing to the area round twice.
“Obviously things are running extremely well here,” Atwood said. “I plan to come in and support the head coaches of those other sports and be sure that they have everything that they need to be successful. We’re going to do everything we can to establish some strength and conditioning ideas.”
“I’m making my way back to Alice tomorrow after getting a chance to meet with the kids and staff. I’ve got a letter of resignation drawn up so it’s just a matter of getting with our school board to get released from my contract and getting a start date here. I’ve got a number of days off saved up so I’ll be able to come up here and be a part of this to ensure.”
A native of Muleshoe, Atwood earned his degree in Kinesiology from Texas Tech. He also served as a four-year letterman on the track and field team where he was a five-time all-Big XII honoree and part of the 2005 Big XII championship team.
His wife holds a doctorate in counseling and is serving as a professor for Angelo State. They have three children, Kenli (15), Keegan (9) and Payton (7).
“My family and I are extremely excited and happy to be here and be a part of this school district. We know some great things are to come. We’re ready to get to work.”
This is a developing story, stay tuned to the Archer County News for more information.
