Published: November 27, 2007 11:36 pm      

Changing directions

Palestine AD/coach Tunstall reassigned

PALESTINE — Palestine High School athletic director and head football coach Glen Tunstall was reassigned by the Palestine Independent School District Monday afternoon.

“In recent months, we as an administration and board, were concerned about some issues and where the athletic program was going,” Palestine ISD Superintendent Jerry Mayo said Tuesday morning. “We felt like it was time to take it a different direction.”

Tunstall said he was not expecting this decision.

“This was a surprise move to me and I have hired legal counsel,” Tunstall said Tuesday afternoon.

Booker Bowie, who spent five years as the Palestine defensive coordinator and assistant head football coach, will take over as interim athletic director and head football coach.

Mayo said Tunstall will be reassigned to another position in the district but is unsure of what that position will be at the present time.

Tunstall, a 1975 Palestine High School graduate, was hired as an assistant football coach at Palestine High School in 1998 and was promoted to the athletic director and head coaching position in 2004. In his four years as the Palestine head coach, Tunstall was 33-14 including an 11-3 record his first season when the Wildcats reached the state semifinals. Tunstall led the Wildcats to the playoffs three of his four seasons.

“Coach Tunstall has served the district for many years and has taken us to a point that included many good things,” Mayo said.

The decision to reassign Tunstall came two weeks after Palestine’s football season ended. The Wildcats finished a disappointing 5-5, snapping a five-year streak of making the playoffs.

Despite the struggles on the football field, Mayo said it did not have to do with reassigning Tunstall.

“As far as our record this year, it was not a factor at all in the decision,” Mayo said. “I was not working off the factor of how many wins or losses we had.”

Mayo said the decision had to do with having a “well-balanced athletic department.”

“We felt like a new leadership may bring some of the things we are looking for in our athletic program,” Mayo said. “We felt this was the right time to make a change.”

With Bowie in place as the interim head coach and athletic director, Mayo said the board will take its time in starting the search for a new head football coach.

“With a stable person up there, we are not going to jump into a big search right now,” the Palestine superintendent said. “We will evaluate what we have, take a steady look at it and make some decisions and look at what we need to do.”

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Scott Tyler may be contacted via e-mail at styler@palestineherald.com