Dan Jones Gaffney High interim head football coach Dan Jones will keep that tag for the 2010 season.

Acting Superintendent Kim Bagwell said Friday the preliminary and final selection committees agreed during Thursday’s meeting to offer Jones, the current interim head coach, the head coaching job on an interim basis for this season.

Jones played at Gaffney High and has served as defensive coordinator for the past seven years.

The school board is expected to rubberstamp the committee’s decision at its meeting today.

Jones’ status will be re-evaluated after the season, Bagwell said.

Presumably, Jones would be named the full-time head coach after the 2010 season if the team has a successful year. However, the school district would reopen its search for a new coach after the season if Jones and the team struggles.

“It really just depends if we feel the need to post the position,” Bagwell said. “It depends on how things go with Dan. He’s a hometown boy and everybody I talked to said to me that Dan is Gaffney High football. I respect that Dan is here, but you don’t want to close off any option.”

As for pay, Bagwell said Jones will get the same coaching stipend that former coach Phil Strickland received and not a penny more.

The preliminary and final selection committee, curiously, made its decision to call off its search for a new coach just four days after it was formed.

Bagwell said the committee made its decision to offer Jones the job for a year because the regular season is too close to bring an unfamiliar head coach on board at this time.

Jones was named the interim head coach on May 13, the day after Strickland resigned unexpectedly in the middle of spring practice to take the head coach position at Class 2A Newberry. Jones served as the head coach for the remainder of spring practice.

“We are too far into the process to look for a head football coach,” Bagwell said.

The Indians will begin their passing league sessions this week.

According to sources with knowledge of the search, several coaches with ties to Gaffney applied for the position, including former assistants Greg Taylor and Mike Biddix. Former T.L. Hanna coach Scott Parker also expressed a desire for the job.

The committee also will recommend to the school board that boys varsity basketball coach Mark Huff continue as the athletic director on a 1-year, interim basis. Huff will receive the same athletic director stipend Strickland got, according to Bagwell.