Friday Night Kickoff

This is according to Tuesday's Kalamazoo Gazette (Paran resigns Mattawan football coaching position).

The Wildcats have spent the last 4 years under the control of Doug Paran after coming over from Lakeshore, serving as an assistant to Denny Dock.    Paran did serve as an assistant under then Mattawan head coach Mark Lawrence.   Paran finishes at 17-21 (.447). 

Paran made the playoffs during his first two years, going 6-4 in 2005 losing to Battle Creek Harper Creek in the first round 55-31.   The Wildcats again made the playoffs in 2006, losing 10-6 at Lakeshore in the first round, finishing at 7-3 on the season.

Mattawan would struggle the next two years, falling to 3-6 in 2007, and a 1-8 record in 2008. with the 'Cats only win coming against 0-9 Benton Harbor.

This season was probably the most difficult for the Wildcats, the controversy for Paran started before the season even started as a number of key players were kicked off of the team due to violations of team rules.   The parents of those players were threatening to sue the school district to get them reinstated to the team.  The numbers on the roster weren't that deep either this season as the Wildcats only had 27 players on the varsity roster for 2008,  not a good number for a Class A school consisting of 1,158 students.  I think you could tell then that the clock for Paran was already starting to countdown.

So the new coach whomever it shall be will have to contend with a program that only has 4 wins in the last two seasons combined.  In addition, the new coach will have to find a way to bring the skilled athletes roaming the halls of the new Mattawan High School.   The Mattawan administration will name a successor sometime before January.   If you want my opinion, make sure the new coach will keep the players on the field, keep the parents out of his playbook, and off the sidelines.

It doesn't really help Mattawan that St. Joe and Lakeshore are in the division, next season add Portage Central and Portage Northern to the West Divsion.   The new coach will have his feet to the fire in the first two weeks, they travel to Battle Creek Lakeview and then host Jackson Lumen Chrisit in week 2 of 2009.