By Randy Arrington
LURAY, Jan. 19 — During closed session at last week’s meeting, the Page County School Board approved the hiring of longtime assistant Lynn Hamilton, as the new head football coach for the Luray Bulldogs.
Hamilton has been with the LHS football program since 1993 in a variety of assistant coaching roles from serving as both Offensive and Defensive coordinator (at different times), to being line coach, and for six years, the head coach of the junior varsity program. He has also been coaching track and field for the Bulldogs since 2012.
“We only had one apply and the right guy put in his application,” LHS Athletic Director Don Ehlers told PVN. “Coach Hamilton is an excellent coach, teacher and employee for LHS and [Page County Public Schools]. He’s a hard worker who possesses a tremendous work ethic…even keeled as well. He has paid his dues and deserves the opportunity.”
Hamilton says that he wants to carry on the winning ways of the LHS football program in recent years under outgoing head coach Nolan Jeffries, who lead the program for the past seven seasons.
“I wanted to continue working with the players,” Hamilton said of pursuing the top position. “One of the reasons I coach is to provide the opportunity for the players to grow and gain confidence in themselves. Hopefully, they can take the skills that they learn playing football — perseverance, commitment, teamwork, leadership, handling pressure, time management, dependability, accountability, etc. — and apply them to all areas of their lives.”
The longtime assistant would not comment on any further changes to the LHS coaching staff, but he reaffirmed the Bulldogs commitment to the ground game.
“We will still have a run-first mentality, but hopefully, [we’ll] be able to mix in some passing to keep defenses honest and not stack the box,” the new coach told PVN.
Hamilton served as the offensive and defensive lineman coach when he started in 1993. After four years in that role, he lead the junior varsity program from 1998 to 2004. At that point, he became both the lineman coach and the Offensive Coordinator from 2005 to 2009. Hamilton served as only the lineman coach from 2010 to 2011, and then picked up the role of Defensive Coordinator for the past decade from 2012 to 2022.
The 1986 LHS alum played both junior varsity (1982-83) and varsity (1984-86) football for the Bulldogs before attending Lord Fairfax Community College (1987-89). Hamilton went on to obtain his Bachelor of Science in Psychology from Virginia Commonwealth University in 1991 and his Masters in Special Education from Old Dominion University in 2003. He has been a special education teacher with Page County Public Schools since 1998, working at Luray Elementary from 1998 to 2006, and at LHS since 2007.
“I feel that I bring experience, a passion for football, and, as I mentioned in the previous answer, to provide the opportunity for the players to grow and gain confidence in themselves,” the new head coach told PVN.
Coach Hamilton will have his work cut out for him. The Bulldogs lose a group of seniors that include several All-Region and All-District selections. Although the small high school continuously struggles with depth in a highly competitive region, the new head football coach believes the Bulldogs can continue to be competitive.
“Our goals remain the same as in previous years — to have a good off-season of workouts so we will be able to continue to play consistent offense and tough defense and give ourselves the opportunity to win games,” Coach Hamilton said. “Our region is one of the most competitive in the area, and the teams that can play consistent football are the ones that have success.”
For full schedules, rosters and standings — check out the Bull Run District website.
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