MERKEL, Texas (BCH Sports) – There’s big high school football news out of the big country. Merkel has hired Snyder’s Wes Wood to become their new football coach and athletic director.

Coach Wood led Snyder for five seasons, including three playoff appearances. Now he’ll replace former Merkel coach Will Kates and take command of the Badgers.

Wes Wood said, “You know, Merkel’s kind of been one of those schools similar to the setting that I grew up in playing in Muleshoe when I was young, playing for my dad and Merkel was extremely welcoming, and you could tell. You want to go where you’re wanted so pretty good fit.”

Wes Wood added, “I thought Kates did a great job and it was pretty intriguing and it was just kind of the right time for me with a lot of different variables going on. And so we looked into it and it just felt right. I was really impressed with the administration and just the opportunity seemed to be the right one.”

Wes Wood continued, “We’re going to come in there with a whole lot of energy. We’re going to come in there with a really, really tough program, and everybody wants to win. But in order to win, you got to do the right things, and you have to work really, really hard. We’re going to try to establish discipline, culture, energy and all those necessary factors that that it’s going to take in order to build those types of championship programs. We’re going to love really hard. We’re going to coach really hard. We’re going to have a whole lot of fun while we do it.”

The hire won’t be made official until Thursday, but Coach Wood plans to start his new job next week.