Todd Dodge makes more coaching changes in Marble Falls school district
MARBLE FALLS — Two more coaches at Marble Falls Middle School learned their services on the playing field are no longer needed, bringing the number of dismissals there to three under new athletic director Todd Dodge.
Middle school coaches Craig Orton and Tom Lane March 19 confirmed Dodge said they are not part of the long-term goals of the Marble Falls Independent School District’s athletics program. “It worked out for me,” Lane said. “I was planning on retiring. I just needed a little push.”
But Orton, a coach for eight of his 12 years at MFISD, wants to keep his teaching job.
“If nothing else, I’d like to at least stay in the district and teach,” he said.
That remains a possibility because the district is considering keeping coaches who just want to be teachers, said Superintendent Rob O’Connor.
“We’ll obviously keep our options open,” he said. “If he’s ready to drop coaching, we’ll definitely consider him for other positions.”
Faculty can resign as late as June, so officials still don’t know which teachers plan to stay or leave, O’Connor said.
“There might be personnel transition and people moving because of family reasons or a multitude of other reasons,” he said.
Orton originally was hired as an elementary teacher, then taught math at the middle school. Former athletic director Cord Woerner, now the director of special projects, asked him to coach.
“This is the only place I’ve ever coached,” Orton said.
Orton has offered to switch from coaching boys to coaching girls. He is certified to teach first through eighth grade and wants to educate fifth-graders.
Orton’s wife, Vonda, is a fourth-grade teacher at Colt Elementary School.
“I’m not loading up the U-Haul and packing up my family,” Craig Orton said.
Lane has taught 33 years — 23 at Marble Falls Middle, where he coached for two decades. He taught at the Iola ISD in Kansas for 10 years but moved to the Highland Lakes after taking several vacations to the area when his wife Margo’s family moved to the region. She is a reading specialist at Colt Elementary.
Lane has a home-repair and lawn business, he said. In addition, he also has a background in insurance adjustment.
“It’s time, he said.
Eighth-grade boys coach Kevin McLean was told March 7 he wasn’t needed in the athletic department. He is the son of former School Board President Martin McLean.
Dodge, who started in February, is the former University of Pittsburgh quarterbacks coach.