By John Balch
News-Leader staff
The Dierks School Board has rounded out the district’s coaching staff with the hiring of two new coaches.
The board voted to hire 2014 Dierks High School graduate Andrew Sirmon as assistant football coach, assistant baseball coach and teacher, and Phillip Binkley as Outlaw offensive coordinator and off-season girls and boys track coach.
The resignation of assistant coach Caleb Garrick was accepted to make room for the new hires.
Sirmon is currently a senior education major at Henderson State University were he was recently selected as the Spring 2018 Outstanding Secondary Education (K-12) Intern. He also received the 2017-2018 Outstanding Male Health and Physical education Award.
Binkley is a veteran coach who served the Genoa School District as athletic director and head football coach. He has also worked at schools in Redwater, Texas, Lafayette County, Bentonville and Center, Texas.
Binkley worked at Lafayette County with new Outlaw head football coach Jarrod Fannin, who is also a 1999 graduate of DHS and was recently hired to replace Jonathan Bates, who along with Garrick, left the school after a 1-9 season on the football field.
In related sports business, the board approved changes to the athletic policy “promotions” section to allow seventh graders to play on the junior team and ninth graders to play on the high school team at the discretion of the coaches.
The board also accepted the resignation of Shanna Mounts as elementary teacher and approved Mindy Efird as her replacement. The board also voted to assign Karla Hawthorne as head custodian.
