2014 Dallas Football Coach of the Year Tim Buchanan steps down at Aledo

Coaching high school football is a massively time-consuming proposition.

In Texas, it's never-ending.

One of the Lone Star State's most successful and respected coaches, Aledo's Tim Buchanan, stepped down Thursday to take a new role at the school as full-time athletic director. He was already splitting duties.

In 21 seasons, Buchanan led the Bearcats to five UIL state crowns, including a 4A Division II crown in December. He compiled a record of 227 wins, 53 losses and three ties. Steve Wood, the team's defensive coordinator since 2002, was named interim head coach for the 2014 season. Fall practice for Aledo starts Aug. 11.

In recent years, Buchanan had been both the school's football coach and AD. Simply, the load was too much.

"It became very difficult to be both a good AD and a good coach with the program that we have here," Buchanan told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. "It's going to be hard to give up football. I've been on the football field since I was 9 years old. But you know, you don't have enough hours in a day to get both jobs done."

Buchanan, featured here in a MaxPreps Hometown Heroes series, led the Bearcats to a 16-0 season last year and his team set a national single-season record for points, with 1,023.

One of those games was a 91-0 win over Western Hills (Fort Worth), and Buchanan was among the targets of a bullying complaint the following day. It led to a national debate. Buchanan met all the charges head-on and was asked if the complaint and the aftermath played a role in him stepping down.

He told a local radio station Thursday: "It makes you think, am I doing the right thing? Are we doing everything we could? It wears on you. But that's not why I decided to go straight AD."

Buchanan, the MaxPreps Capital One Bank Dallas Coach of the Year, led dozens of college players, including MaxPreps 2011 National Player of the Year Johnathan Gray. In every exchange I had with the man — probably a half dozen — he was friendly, earnest and more than accommodating.

He told reporters he may coach football again.

Buchanan reflected on his coaching career with MaxPreps correspondent and longtime Dallas area scribe Randy Jennings in December. Here is an excerpt from that story:

When Buchanan took the Aledo job in 1993, the football program was a coaching graveyard. He was the fifth Bearcats coach in four years. One stayed only two days.

"I remember a film from one of the scrimmages. Holliday ran eight plays that started from their 35 and all eight went for 65-yard touchdowns,'' Buchanan said.

He instilled a "start on time'' motto. Checking past game film, Buchanan noted the number of times opponents either returned the opening kickoff for a touchdown or scored on its first play from scrimmage.

The turnaround didn't happen overnight. In the first season, the Bearcats were 2-8. But that was also their last losing record. It took two more years to begin the streak of playoff appearances.

"We had to build trust and let the kids know the coaches were going to be there for them after having so many coaches,'' Buchanan said.

In his own high school playing days as a linebacker at Killeen, Buchanan's playoff hopes were spoiled by Central Texas power Temple. But he was good enough to get a scholarship to Abilene Christian. His bachelor's degree is from Texas State with a Masters in education from Texas A&M.

Before Aledo, Buchanan made five assistant coaching stops and at the last one, A&M Consolidated (College Station), he was involved in three state championship games and on the winning side in one.

Lucrative coaching offers have been turned down by Buchanan. Changing jobs was out of the question until his children completed their schooling in Aledo.

"The only way I would leave now is for a college assistant coaching job,'' Buchanan said. "If the right job came along, I'd think about it. But I have a great job. I've been so lucky to be able to do what I love.''

Evidently the right job was simply one job.