Sorrells said Friday he has applied and interviewed for the Gobblers' job that came open when Reed Prosser resigned in May.

"Rockingham County is my home, or was my home a long time ago," Sorrells said Friday by phone from his house in DeFuniak Springs, Fla. "It's appealing to come back. I have a lot of friends there and some family."

The 60-year-old Sorrells said he owns about 30 acres of land between Timberville and New Market. He said he inquired about Spotswood's opening last year but never interviewed.

This time around, the 1964 BHS graduate apparently is a finalist.

"I've applied for the job. I haven't got anything definite yet," he said. "I heard the other day that they were considering me. But I'm waiting to hear the final results. They said I was one of the top candidates."

Current Broadway assistant Phil Collett said Thursday he interviewed for the position but had been told Wednesday it was offered to someone else.

Broadway principal Steve Lehman confirmed Friday that Sorrells applied and interviewed for the job. Lehman would not confirm whether Sorrells was the candidate Broadway athletic director Chris Garber recommended for the position.

Garber would not comment Friday.

Sorrells was a quarterback and running back at Ferrum College, where he was named a Junior College All-American in 1965.

Since 1969, he has been coaching football in the Sunshine State. He started as a junior high school coach and then a high school assistant. From 1979-2001, he was head coach at Niceville High School, compiling a 169-68 record and winning a state title.

"That was kind of unique, most coaches don't stay for so long," Sorrells said. "But I was a head coach there 22 years. We won a lot of games."

In 2002, after one year as an assistant at Walton High in DeFuniak Springs, he took over as head coach of the Braves.

The Braves were 1-9 the year before Sorrells took over. His first season on the sidelines, 2002, they went 8-4 and were regional qualifiers. In four seasons at Walton, Sorrells went 27-14.

When he took the Walton job he told the local newspaper, the Northwest Florida Daily News, that he wanted it to be his final coaching stop. But in October 2005, the paper reported that Sorrells had been forced to retire as the school's coach and athletic director as part of the state's Deferred Retirement Option Program. Sorrells, who was 58 at the time, requested to stay on as a teacher and football coach for three years, but the school principal said no, according to the paper.

Still interested in coaching, Sorrells turned his sights to Virginia, a move he had considered before taking the Walton position.

"It's something I've wanted to do for the last probably five years or so," he said.

His wife Paula, a South Carolina native, has been working as a morning television anchor in the Florida panhandle.

Fort Defiance assistant Mike Roark, a former head coach in California, said Thursday he applied for the BHS job but hadn't heard back.

Both Collett, who coached the Gobblers' offensive and defensive lines, and newly hired boys' basketball assistant Brian Ratliff, a former Broadway and Bridgewater College football player, said they would be interested in working as assistants once a new coach was hired.

Lehman said he hopes to have a candidate approved at the Rockingham County School Board's meeting Tuesday.

Prosser left Broadway in May to take over at Millbrook, after former BHS coach Rod Bowers left that school and accepted the job at Stuarts Draft.

Prosser went 20-12 in his three seasons at BHS, leading the Gobblers to a 9-3 mark and an appearance in the Region II, Division 3 title game in 2004.
Copyright (c) 2006, Byrd Newspapers, All Rights Reserved.
Author: MIKE BARBER, Daily News-Record
Section: Sports
Copyright (c) 2006, Byrd Newspapers, All Rights Reserved.