By NEAL WAGNER / Managing Editor

ALABASTER – The Alabaster Board of Education began its search for a new Thompson High School football coach and school system athletic director during a Nov. 10 meeting.

The meeting came about a week after the school system terminated Michael Montgomery as the THS head football coach and assistant THS athletic director. Montgomery will remain at THS as a physical education teacher and head coach of the school’s track team.

During the meeting, the School Board voted unanimously without discussion to approve the new systemwide athletic director and head football coach position. The system will now move forward with its search for an individual to fill the position.

“We will post the position until it is filled,” Vickers said during an interview after the meeting. “We will look over the information we receive and we will select the very best person for the job.”

School Board President Adam Moseley said the system is looking for an individual to lead the ACS athletic programs through one of the most competitive districts in the state.

In the Alabama High School Athletic Association’s 2014 reclassifications, Thompson was placed in the new Class 7A for football. The Warriors’ football region includes teams such as Hoover, Mountain Brook, Oak Mountain and Hewitt-Trussville.

“We’re taking the same approach we do with every position, whether it’s an engineering teacher or a English teacher,” Moseley said. “We want to go out and attract the best individual we can.”

Montgomery had served as head coach of the Warriors since 2012, compiled an overall record of 7-23 and a 2-19 record against region opponents during his three-season tenure. The Warriors’ winless 2014 season ended after an Oct. 30 home loss to the Chelsea Hornets.

He took over the Thompson football program after back-to-back one-year coaching stints by Bruce Hill in 2010 and Caleb Ross in 2011.

The next THS coach likely will wrap up the Warriors’ tenure in the current Larry Simmons Stadium off Thompson Road, as the city’s school system is preparing to break ground on a new high school and 365,000-square-foot high school and athletic complex.