Newton high football coach Chris Gale is flanked by Superintendent Dr. Virginia Young and NHS athletic director Crandal Porter on Friday.

    Newton athletic director Crandal Porter looked at the gentleman seated at the table and uttered the words that Tiger fans had longed to hear since November.

    “It gives me great pleasure to introduce to you the next head football coach at Newton High School, Mr. Chris Gale,” Porter said.

    With that, Gale took the reins as the Tigers’ head coach.

    “It’s an honor and a pleasure to stand before you today as head football coach at Newton High School,” said Gale, a former head coach at Laurel and an All-American at Jackson State. “I promise to give you maximum effort as head coach.”

    Porter said the search started as soon as coach Ed Stanley announced his retirement in November. Stanley led Newton for two seasons, guiding the Tigers to a 6-6 mark and the Class 2A state playoffs his first season in 2010 before NHS fell to 2-9 this past season when it moved up to Class 3A. Stanley’s tenure came after a two-year stint by James Johnson that netted a 7-15 mark. Newton’s last winning season came in 2002 under Brad Peterson. The athletic director said, immediately, there was a  great response for the opening.

    “We had 45 applicants to start off with,” Porter said. “We quickly narrowed it down to eight people.”

    Porter said he talked to numerous coaches about what it takes to be successful. He enlisted the help of some big name coaches to get advice on who the new coach should be.

    “The narrowing process was just talking to coaches with championship programs,” Porter said. “I talked to Marcus Boyles (Petal), Brad Peterson (Brandon), and M.C. Miller (Louisville) just to name a few. After talking to them, I thought Gale was the perfect fit for the position.”

    Gale said he doesn’t measure success by wins and losses, rather, the molding of boys into young men.

    “I firmly believe that football is a preparation for life,” he said. “I look forward to helping young men in their transition from boyhood to manhood.”

    Gale said Newton will run the spread offense, however, it will not be a traditional spread. This will enable the Tigers’ quarterback to step under center and take the snap. Defensively, the Tigers will employ the 4-3.

    “Being a defensive lineman, I love to have as many of them out on the field as I can,” Gale said. “In the age of the spread, you have to be multiple on defense.”

    The new coach doesnt officially start until March 1, however, he said he will be in Newton every day prior to that start date.

    “We are going to implement the weight program now,” Gale said. “We want to get as big and as fast as possible.”

    The coach said while early success can be garned on the high school level, overall success is defined earlier than that.

    “My biggest belief is that you build programs on the junior high level,” he said. “That’s where your foundation is.

    “If you want to stay successful over a long period of time, you definately have to get things going in the right direction on the junior high level.”

    Porter said Newton is ready for Gale to step in and get the ball rolling on his coaching career. He said Gale is a guy that the kids can look up to.

    “He’s a high character guy, a role model and a good football coach,” Porter said. “This is the fourth or fifth coach we’ve had since I’ve been here.

    “Newton High needs some stability and coach Gale also wants to be here for a long time. So that’s good for all parties.”