Greenville High School head football coach and athletic director Patrick Plott announced his departure from the school two weeks ago, but the administration’s search for a replacement is well underway.

Greenville High School principal Joseph Dean said that he has assembled a committee, much like last year, to reduce a collection of more than 80 applicants to anywhere between five and 10 candidates for a thorough interview process.

“We’ve already started to reduce the list of applicants down to a final pool that we will start interviewing in the next few days,” Dean said.

“I don’t have a time frame for when that will all be completed, but we will hopefully be able to get all of that started this week with the interview process.”

The process is fairly similar to the one the school used last year.

Dean has put together a committee of representatives from throughout the community that have a stake in the school and its athletic program, and the group aims to reach a unanimous decision to select a single candidate from among the several applicants.

Unlike last year’s search, which took place less than a month prior to the beginning of spring training, time is not of the essence for the committee’s decision.

But this year’s more thorough approach isn’t only due to beginning the search a month before the formation of the 2014 committee.

Greenville High School has had five head football coaches/athletic directors in the past decade alone—Mike Williams in 2005, Bryant Vincent in 2006, Ben Blackmon from 2007-2010, Earnest Hill from 2011-2013 and, most recently, Plott in 2014.

Dean hopes the taking the extra time will manifest in finding the right fit for the position.

“We all want to find the right person in the shortest period of time, of course, but I think it’s more important to do our due diligence and find the right person, make sure we ask the right questions and be thorough in the process,” Dean said.

Dean added that as athletic director as well as head football coach, the candidate would need to become an integral part of the lives of all student athletes, including those participating in basketball, baseball, volleyball, softball, cheerleading and more.

“We hire teachers all the time, and it’s the same process, but when you’re hiring a football coach that will also serve as athletic director and will be making decisions on other coaches, you hope to find the right person,” Dean added.

Unfortunately, Dean added that those qualifications are difficult to verify until the job begins.

But there is one qualification that sits above all others.

“I think most importantly, you look for someone who wants to be here,” Dean continued.

“We’re looking for someone who’s energetic, motivated, and most of all, we’re looking for someone who wants this job to be his dream job instead of this being a job on the way to another job.”