HARVEST- Through the 13 years at Sparkman High, Ronnie Watson has worn the hats of many positions at the Class 7A school. His newest hat should fit just fine as he has been named the new head coach of the Senators’ football program.

For the past five seasons Watson has been the Defensive Coordinator under head coach Laron White, who retired earlier this year. Now, he takes over the program as head coach and will start his new position with spring practice getting underway within a month.

The announcement of Watson’s hire was made by school principal Chris Shaw.

“I’m excited and I appreciate the opportunity as I love these kids and the Harvest community,” said Watson, who has been the head coach of Sparkman’s wrestling program for eight years while also teaching world history.

The 45-year old Watson spent 20-plus years in the corporate world including 20 years working at the Huntsville location of Chuck E. Cheese. The national company, founded in 1977, has a moniker of “Where a kid can be a kid,” but Watson knew he wanted to make a change in his career and get into education. He’s a graduate of Buckhorn High where he was a two-sport athlete playing both football and baseball.

“Getting this kind of position is the main reason I retired from business and got into coaching,” added Watson, who is married to his wife, Melanie, as they have three children, Cody, Sara and Allie.

Watson arrived at Sparkman where he was named director of football operations under then head coach Chris Cagle. When White replaced Cagle as head coach Watson was soon elevated to defensive coordinator where two his squads were ranked among the top 15 in the state.

“We’re excited that Coach Watson is taking his next step at Sparkman High School,” said Shaw. “He is responsible for a lot of success the program has had. He knows what the standard is at Sparkman and we believe he can continue the success that head coach White has built at the school.”

White had an overall 34-30 record in six seasons and was the first head coach to post an overall winning record at Sparkman since 1969.

When asked why he believes he was chosen as the school’s new head coach, Watson said, “Being around the team and having the experience within the program where I learned from two great head coaches and have been the reasons. Both Cagle and White helped develop me and my coaching capabilities.”

Watson’s new hat should fit well and he’ll get his first opportunity to fulfill his head coaching duties in April as spring practice is scheduled to begin with a Senator spring game set for May 19 versus Hueytown.