CHS' Gill takes job in Rio Rancho

Suffice it to say, it’s been a busy summer for Clovis High athletic director Brian Stacy.

CHS has already hired a girls basketball coach, and is in the process of filling the baseball position vacated when Shane Shallenberger accepted the coaching position at the new Cleveland High School in Rio Rancho.

Now the school is looking to replace boys soccer coach Shaun Gill, who is following Shallenberger to Cleveland. Gill submitted his letter of resignation on Tuesday.

The biggest challenge is matching the coaching job with a teaching position. Stacy said there are two openings in science and one each in social studies and English.

“Right now, with the educational opportunities the school district has, maybe someone will come in and say, ‘I’m a science teacher and I’d like to coach soccer,’” Stacy said. “If that happened, I’d be living right.”

Gill, 37, compiled a 27-72-2 record in six years at CHS, but that’s perhaps a bit deceptive. The Wildcats were just 7-52 during his first three seasons, but went 28-30-2 over the past three campaigns.

Gill, who is from Gallup, coached with Shallenberger at Gallup and came to CHS one year after Shallenberger did. Still, he said that for him the move was more of family concerns.

“My mom is needing a little help; she’s having some health issues,” Gill said. “I’ll be moving two hours from Gallup, so that was a big factor.”

Like Shallenberger, Gill will be coaching a freshman program this fall before the school dives into a varsity schedule in 2009-10. Gill said he expects to have some of the best talent in the state to work with.

“For me, Rio Rancho is one of the centers for soccer in the state,” he said. “I saw that as an opportunity.”

Meantime, Stacy said he’s getting closer on the baseball situation. He said he hopes to be able to set up the required five interviews, probably to be conducted on Thursday and Monday, and perhaps name a coach shortly after that.