Ben’s Ford Christian School has named Dean King as its new football coach.
“It’s a great opportunity for me,” King said. “I’m very excited. It’s a place I want come in at and build a program. I want to be here for a while. I’ve already met up with the kids and the coaches.
“We’re excited about what we’ve got coming up this season. We’ve got a lot of work to do, but there’s something to get accomplished. I’m fired up about it and ready to get started.”
King, 25, comes to Ben’s Ford after spending every football season since 2012 at his alma mater Bowling Green School, with a basketball season at Ben’s Ford in the middle.
King, a 2011 graduate of Bowling Green, has been an assistant football coach at Bowling Green every year since 2012. He was the head junior varsity basketball coach at Ben’s Ford for the 2013-14 season.
On the gridiron, he’s been a head junior varsity coach at Bowling Green, a defensive coordinator, linebacker coach and offensive line coach.
This is his first varsity head-coaching job.
King said he knows a lot of the players that are already with the team and he knows they are willing to work and that they’ve been working hard since he’s been there.
“I’ve been pushing them in the weight room,” King said. “They want to get better. They want to compete and they’ve been pushing hard in the weight room. If we work hard, push hard and push each other, we’ll get there. When you have a lot of people that are willing to work hard and want to win, you can build off of that.”
King said they had a team meeting and of the things they talked about was having confidence.
“We want to completely change the mindset and forget the past seasons. We set goals,” King said. “We’re setting goals to be faster, stronger and be a better football team. We told the kids to look at where they are now and where they want to be.”
Ben’s Ford athletic director Mark McGehee said King will be a good fit for the school.
“We’re familiar with coach King,” McGehee said. “He was with us a couple of years back. We’re happy to have him back and we’re looking forward to him working with the team.”
McGehee noted that King brings energy, knowledge of the game, discipline and an enthusiasm to the position. King replaces Robert N. Cook, who served as the Ben’s Ford head football coach last season.
The Eagles open the 2017 regular season at home Aug. 18 against New Orleans Home School.