OC Hermesmeyer takes Winters post
By JEREMY HEATH Staff Writer

PHOTO BY GABE WOLF LHS offensive coordinator Stephen Hermesmeyer resigned Tuesday to be the athletics director/head coach at Winters.

Stephen Hermesmeyer resigned as offensive coordinator for the Lampasas High School football team on Tuesday to accept the athletics director/ head football coach position at Class 1A Winters High School.

Hermesmeyer, who had two coaching stints in Mason and one in Ballinger before coming to LHS last summer, will take over the position vacated by Craig Bales. Bales led District 15-1A Winters to a 6-5 record last season and a 26-17 record the past four seasons combined.

LHS is coming off an 0-10 season.

"I came to Lampasas because it was a great opportunity for my family," said Hermesmeyer, whose wife, Laura, is a counselor at LHS this year. "We knew we were going to have the opportunity to work with great administrators, staff, students and community.

"Accepting the job at Winters gets me to one of my career goals. I have been blessed in my 11 years as a coach to work for some great people, and I have learned a lot from each of them."

LHS Athletics Director Joey McQueen will post the opening as assistant football coach/head girls' powerlifting coach rather than offensive coordinator/head girls' powerlifting coach. He said this will allow head football coach Ryan Bailey the freedom to promote a current staff member to the post and hire a position coach, or hire someone specifically to fill the coordinator position.

"I hired Stephen as a junior high coach in 1998 when I was at Mason, and he did a great job," McQueen said. "He felt like being a coordinator at a 4A school [LHS] would help him achieve his career goals. He's a very analytical coach, a great thinker. He's going to do a great job at Winters.

"But I think the school will probably miss his wife more than him. She is a great counselor." LHS spring football practices are scheduled to begin April 26.