By Ken Jackson
Sports Writer

Harmony High School’s football program will enter the spring season with a new head coach after Dayne Brown stepped down Monday.

Brown confirmed that he resigned to move to the college level, taking the defensive coordinator position at Pikeville College, an NAIA program in Pikeville, Ky., near where he grew up.

Dudley Hilton, a three-time state champion high school coach in Kentucky, was named the Bears’ new head coach recently.

Brown will remain on staff as a physical education teacher through the end of his contract in June.

Harmony Principal Grover Butler said it didn’t take long for word to spread about the opening, and by midweek he already received an impressive stack of resumes.

“We’re surprised by how fast the news spread. I’m impressed with the interest,” he said. “With that, we know that we will bring in the right person.”

Butler said he hopes to bring in someone with the same mission as Brown, with priorities on academics and character.

“It might be someone currently on staff, it could be someone from out of state,” Butler said.

The Longhorns won four of their first five games in 2010, but then they dropped the final five to finish at 4-6. The program was 15-16 in his three years after Brown took over from Tyler Anderson, Harmony’s first coach.

Brown’s most significant victory came during his first season, in 2008, when the Longhorns upended Osceola 20-14 for the school’s only football victory against the Kowboys.

Butler spoke well of Brown’s tenure.

“Dayne did a great job. He’s a great guy and excellent coach and he will do well at the college level,” he said. “He knows how to build young people up. What impressed me most about him is focus on character and academics.”

Butler said that the process of selecting the new coach, “won’t be immediate,” but will occur in plenty of time so the coach is in place for spring drills in May.

Butler said Brown agreed to help the new coach during the transition period.

Harmony is currently slated to shift to district 6A-6 next season.