Corey Davis

Richmond County Daily Journal

The search for a head varsity baseball coach is heading to the final stretch.

Administrators with Richmond Senior High conducted the first round of interviews on Wednesday to hire a permanent replacement for David Lee, who resigned as head varsity baseball coach in January to return to West Stanly.

Two candidates interviewed for the position Wednesday, including interim varsity baseball coach Jason Norton.

Richmond finished the season with a 15-9 overall record and advanced to the state playoffs before being eliminated by Hoggard in the first round.

According to Norton, he meet with Cory Satterfield, the principal, and Hal Shuler, the athletic director for nearly 45 minutes.

“We had a great conversation, and I’ll just leave it like that,” Norton said.

Shuler added the interview with Norton went well, but refused to elaborate on Norton’s candidacy for the position.

“With him (Norton) being the interim coach, he is in the running, but I don’t want to say who is a leading candidate,” Shuler said.

Shuler said most of the candidates that applied for the position have had head coaching experience at some point in the career, but added not all are currently head coaches at this time.

According to Shuler, he has narrowed the field to four to six candidates after Richmond had between 12 to 15 coaches apply for the job. In addition, two possible candidates withdrew their names from consideration after applying for the position.

The interview process with continue for the rest of the week and continue into the first part of next week. The school hopes to name its new coach no later than the end of next week.

n Contact sports reporter Corey Davis at 997-3111, ext. 44; e-mail cdavis@yourdailyjournal.com