Farwell, Bovina fill coaching positions

District 4-1A football rivals Farwell and Bovina will have new coaches leading their teams next season.

Mark Anglin, the head coach at Class 1A Bartlett, Texas, has been hired at Farwell to replace Jacob Thompson. Meanwhile, Bovina promoted defensive coordinator Hector Guevara to take over for Kent Torbert, who began new duties as football coach and athletic director earlier this month at Lamesa, Texas.

Anglin, 48, will also assume the athletic director’s position at Farwell from district Superintendent and Farwell Elementary Principal Larry Gregory.

Thompson, who went 26-25 in five years as head coach, relinquished that position earlier this spring, but remains at the school as a history, government and economics teacher. He said he would like to pursue new opportunities in coaches.

Gregory said the school had 65 applicants, and Anglin was among six people scheduled for interviews. “He was our second interview, and after we interviewed him we canceled the rest,” Gregory said.

Anglin, who has had two stints in the U.S. Marines and has coached at three high schools in Texas, led the Bulldogs to a 17-14 record and two playoff appearances in three years as head coach. He was also the middle school principal and assistant high school principal at Bartlett, about 40 miles north of Austin.

A son, Brett, will enter the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs in the fall while his daughter, Brianna, is making the move with him and will finish her sophomore year at Farwell.

“I would never have interviewed (at Farwell) if it wasn’t for my son being in Colorado Springs,” Anglin said. “The thing I really enjoyed about it was when I met with the kids, I saw they were great kids.

“Coach Thompson has been an unbelievable help. I want to work with him and the other coaches and the kids to make the transition as smooth as possible.”

Guevera, 32, a 1992 Bovina graduate, has spent eight years as a Mustangs assistant, the last three as defensive co-ordinator. He helped Bovina post a 7-4 record in 2005 and reach the 1A playoffs for the first time in nearly a decade.

“It’s an awesome experience,” Guevara said of his new position. “Being able to help kids succeed — that’s what I’m here for.”

Bovina loses some key players to graduation, but Guevara thinks the Mustangs will be competitive.

“We’ve got a lot of youth, but that youth has experience,” he said.

Dale Fullerton, the former Clovis High athletic director who was hired as Bovina’s principal earlier this year, has assumed Torbert’s AD duties.

“Hector has done a heck of a job with our defense,” Fullerton said. “We had a couple of real good applicants, but (the selection committee) felt like he was the best one for the position.”