Southeast High hires Rashad West as head football coach

Rashad West, the starting quarterback at Southeast in 1995 and '96 when he earned All-Area honors, has been named the new head football coach of the Seminoles.

"I played there and Southeast was great for me, and you always want to go back do good things for the kids in the community you grew up in," West said.

The 36-year-old works for the Manatee County school board as a virtual online school teacher. West said he is not sure about how his staff will turn out, but he will be the offensive coordinator and run an offense that in part will be suited to the players skills.

"We will do my stuff on offense, We are going to run my offense and I will call the plays," West said. "Outside of how it will look I couldn't tell you anything except we will be fast and physical and we are going to have fun. This all so new so I am not sure what I am going to do (about staff), but I have some guys I would like to surround myself with because you always want to be with guys you are comfortable with."

West replaces John Warren, who resigned after two seasons with a 6-15 record that included a 1-9 campaign his first year.

Warren replaced the legendary Paul Maechtle, who coached Southeast for more than 30 years and coached West as a player.

West was a backup quarterback on the Noles 1994 state championship team and said he is looking forward to attaining the success the program reached when he was there.

"We've got to get the alumni and the community back and get those guys (former players) involved in the program," West said.

Maechtle called West's hiring a good choice.

"He is one of the guys who played here and is from here and has Manatee County roots, which is valuable," Maechtle said. "Rashad knows the task at hand and has been a head coach in an area that plays very good football. He is a very good student of the game, has a passion for the game and works well with kids. He took over some programs that were undergoing tough sledding and and did well with them."

West was out of coaching last year, but is a former 2014 Broward County coach of the year for the job he did at Coral Springs and was head coach at Western High in Davie. He played at Southeast Missouri in 2000 and 2001.

West was offensive coordinator at Braden River under Josh Hunter, who also played at Southeast and was an assistant coach at Weber in 2013.

Alan Dell, Herald sports columnist/writer, can be reached at 941-745-7056. Follow him on Twitter@ADellSports.

This story was originally published February 19, 2016 at 7:14 PM with the headline "Southeast High hires Rashad West as head football coach ."