Dolores High School assistant principal and athletic director Jimmie Lankford has resigned.
Lankford confirmed his resignation last week, saying that he plans to move back to Texas to get back into coaching soccer.
“I love this area,” he said on Monday. “I love Colorado. It’s just tough to continue with my career in coaching in this area.”
Before moving to southwest Colorado, Lankford built an impressive resume as a soccer coach in McKinney, Texas.
In 2006, Lankford led the McKinney North High School girls soccer team to a class 4A state title before moving on to take the head coaching position at the newly opened McKinney Boyd High School.
In five seasons at McKinney Boyd, Lankford led the Lady Broncos to three appearances in the state finals.
They won the Class 4A state championship in 2008, and then after moving up to Class 5A, the Broncos finished as runners-up in the 2010 state championship game.
However, the following season – and Lankford’s final at Boyd – the Broncos bounced back, compiling a 28-1-1 record to claim the Class 5A title and finishing the season ranked as the No. 2 team in the nation by ESPN Rise magazine.
From there, Lankford spent two years as the assistant principal and athletic director at Montezuma-Cortez High School before moving on to Dolores in 2013.
Lankford spent the last three years as assistant principal and AD, before resigning two weeks ago.
“I was missing coaching and being in the classroom,” he explained. “As an administrator I did a lot of things, but I missed that one-on-one kid time in an every day setting and in coaching.”
Lankford had applied at a few schools in Texas, and eventually, an opportunity presented itself that allowed him to get back into the classroom, back into coaching and back to a familiar place.
Lankford has accepted a position at Little Elm High School in Little Elm, Texas – just miles from his previous stops in McKinney – where he will teach integrated science and take over as the head coach of the girls soccer program, the school’s website confirmed.
While Lankford is excited for the change, he said there are things that he’ll miss about Dolores.
“I’m going to miss the kids and the parents and the families here, and I’ll miss the teachers,” he said. “It’s a pretty dedicated group around here and I’ll really miss them. And I wish everybody all the best and hopefully we can stay in touch.”
DHS principal Jen Hufman and superintendent Scott Cooper said that the Dolores community will miss Lankford as well, and they offered their gratitude in emails early this week.
“I have had the pleasure of working with Jimmie for the past year,” Hufman said. “I could not have asked for a better partner and mentor as I adjusted to leading a new school. I would say that my favorite thing about Jimmie is that he is all about kids – and he makes sure they know it. Little Elm is blessed to be getting him. I will miss him greatly, and I wish him, Patti, and Madison all the best on their new adventure.”
Cooper also wished Lankford and his family the best in their move back to Texas, saying that Lankford’s contributions to the middle and high schools and his connections with students and families will be missed. He later outlined the athletic department’s restructuring upon Lankford’s departure.
The district has taken Lankford’s prior responsibilities as assistant principal and athletic director and split them into two separate positions, a structure the school had previously employed. After advertising the positions in-house, interviews were conducted on Tuesday with the goal of recommending hires to the school board during their meeting on Tuesday evening.