Palmetto brings aboard Braden River’s Eric Sanders to become its head footbal coach

Eric Sanders, hired in January as head football coach at Braden River, has accepted the vancant head coaching position at Palmetto High School.

SARASOTA – Today, Palmetto High School athletic director Bryan Wilkes is a big fan of Eric Sanders.

It wasn’t always that way. When the Tigers played Braden River in football with Sanders as the Pirates’ offensive coordinator, the games always seemed to end with Braden River emerging victorious.

“There were times when we played them that we felt we should have beaten Braden River, and we lost,” Wilkes said. “We hated facing him. Before Tom Brady came to the Bucs, we all hated him, until he signed with the Bucs, and then he became the greatest guy in the world.”

Their guy: Braden River High stays in house, hires OC Eric Sanders as its head football coach

One and done: Rashad West steps down as Palmetto High football coach

Palmetto’s mantra? If you can’t beat him, hire him as your head coach, as the Pirates did on Tuesday by hiring Sanders just four months after he took the job at Braden River, replacing Curt Bradley, for whom Sanders served for 12 seasons as offensive coordinator.

Sanders replaces Jim Webb, the Palmetto assistant named interim head coach after West stepped down abruptly in March. Still, Wilkes didn’t open the position to candidates until two weeks before the start of spring football. He offered Webb the opportunity to interview, but he declined.

Eric Sanders, Palmetto football coach

“People had reached out to us a couple of times,” Wilkes said. “We want the best for our kids. But we didn’t rush into it. We took our time. We wanted to make sure we got the right guy. I know that coach Sanders thought about it long and hard. He was one of the very last people to throw his name into the hat. And I was very surprised when he applied.”

Still, it…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/palmetto-brings-aboard-braden-rivers-201851148.html

Author : Herald-Tribune

Publish date : 2024-05-21 20:18:51

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