JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Ridgeview and Sandalwood have high school football head coaching vacancies, and looking for new leaders to help turn their programs around.
Sandalwood’s Brad Kessel stepped down after two seasons with the Saints and Merlin Smith is moving on from the Panthers. He went 1-19 after inheriting an 0-10 program, snapping a 29-game losing streak in Sandalwood’s final game of the season, a 34-8 romp over Parker.
Recommended Videos
Both jobs were posted on the Florida High School Athletic Association’s classified page on Tuesday.
The Saints showed quite a bit more promise this season than they did in their previous two. Sandalwood scored just 82 points in 2023 and 61 in 2024. While the improvements were smaller, the Saints were at least competitive in a few of their games this year.
Sandalwood had stretches of excellence under coaches like Bob Withrow and Adam Geis, but have fallen under lean times over the last five years.
Smith went 3-17 in two seasons with the Panthers. The school announced his departure last week and thanked Smith for his contributions. Smith replaced Matt Knauss in the summer of 2023.
Knauss had a 7-4 season in 2020, but the Panthers slipped to back-to-back 1-9 seasons after that.