A passion for football has kept Eddie Minor, Leavenworth, around the sport for 24 years and he will start his 25th at Marysville High School.Minor, 49, was hired to replace Brad Hammett as the Bulldog head football coach at the March 14 Unified School District Board of Education meeting. Of the 37 people who applied for the job, seven were interviewed and Minor was the administration’s recommendation.“We are glad to get him,” said Bert Lord, Marysville Elementary School principal and co-athletic director. “We’re anxious for him to come meet the players and we hope he has a very successful tenure here.”Minor plans to be in Marysville April 2 to meet with players and parents.


His background includes two head coaching stints and several as an offensive coordinator.In 1988, Minor took the head football position at Washington High School in Kansas City, Kan. He was there until 1996 when he left to become the head football coach at Leavenworth High School for the next eight years.Minor left Leavenworth to become an assistant coach at St. Thomas Aquinas, where the Saints made the playoffs six out of seven years, the semi-final round five out of six and state runner-up to Hutchison in 2009.From there he returned to Washington High School for two years and went back to Leavenworth in June 2010.In his career, Minor has coached several sports, including track, where a Leavenworth team he coached won the 6A title in 2001. At Marysville, he will be the head junior high school boys’ basketball coach, which was approved at the March 14 meeting also.“He’s very energetic and passionate about football,” said USD Superintendent Khris Thexton. “He’s a great motivator. I think he will have a positive influence on the students as well as the community of Marysville.”

It was Minor’s background and knowledge of the game that resonated with the Lord and Thexton.“His attitude and his energy were contagious,” Thexton said.An all-around athlete at Shawnee Mission North, Minor walked on as a defensive back to play for the University of Kansas. He comes from a family with a strong baseball and boxing upbringing.“I have always loved sports,” Minor said.Football was no exception. At KU he earned a double major in physical education and journalism. His career includes strength and conditioning, weights and working with at-risk students.Minor plans to use a spread offense that will complement fast and slow and big and small players.“I’m not coming to reinvent the wheel, but to do our version of a system that has proven to work,” he said. “Our system is extremely simple. I have done this long enough that it’s not about taking something simple and making it difficult.”Minor and his wife, Kathy, who is also a physical education teacher with a coaching background, have three children — twins Haley and Brody who are 12 and Kolby, who is 11.“I feel there are still things I can offer,” Minor said about wanting to come to Marysville. “Marysville is a tremendous opportunity and I plan to have a long-term relationship there.”Minor will teach, but a position has yet to be determined.