Search for next Mitchell High School head football coach intensifies, decision possible by end of April

MITCHELL — With the calendar turned to April, the search for the next Mitchell High School head football coach has started to ramp up.

While the mid-February resignation of longtime coach Kent Van Overschelde allowed the Mitchell school district to publicize the opening position early, the empty post is also largely tied to a teaching job within the district.

As such, the school district and Mitchell activities director Cory Aadland had to wait until teaching contract renewals came due at the end of March to take any large steps toward finding the football program’s next coach.

“(The search) was open but not very active (because) we really had no idea of what our teaching openings look like,” Aadland explained. “Now that we have a clearer picture of what we have for teaching openings, that search will intensify starting this week and into the next couple of weeks as we look to move that forward.”

According to Aadland, from the time the position came open, there was plenty of interest expressed, both in terms of quantity and quality of candidates.

“You just never know what that's going to look like,” Aadland said. “But right from the beginning, I was quite pleased with the number and the quality of the interest that we've had, so I feel good about that.”

Though there is no official timetable for the decision to be made, Aadland is hopeful that the search will conclude by the end of April.