Herald Banner staff report
COMMERCE - Ending a whirlwind search, the Commerce Independent School District Board of Trustees Tuesday afternoon named Steve Bragg as the school district's athletic director and head football coach.
Bragg, who starts March 20, comes to Commerce from a similar position at Pittsburg in East Texas. He replaces Steve Lineweaver, who resigned in early February to take the head football coaching position at Euless Trinity.
Bragg was named District 12-3A Coach of the Year for his work with the Pirate athletic program for current season. Under his tutelage, Pittsburg teams won district in both football and cross-country.
Prior to his tenure at Pittsburg, Bragg served as assistant head coach and offensive coordinator of the football teams at Mesquite's Poteet High School for 10 years, and he coached and taught six years at North Mesquite High School.
He also coached girls' basketball and boys' soccer while in the Mesquite system.
"I am honored to be a part of Commerce ISD, " Bragg said in a prepared statement. "It is exciting to be a part of the football tradition here and we hope to continue the success of the Commerce Tigers."
Bragg is scheduled to meet today with all coaches and the boys and girls in the high school athletic program. The coaches were also in attendance Tuesday afternoon at the trustees' meeting in an apparent showing of support.
"We are very happy that Steve is coming to Commerce. We believe he is the man who will be able to maintain our tradition and strengthen our athletic programs," said CISD Superintendent Loretta Kibler.
Echoing Kibler's comments were CISD board president Mary Hendrix.
"We are very fortunate to have Steve join our school system," Hendrix said. "His qualifications, his high expectations and his past experiences will be an asset to an already successful athletic program."
The school board president added the trustees were impressed not only with Bragg's success in the athletics, but his high academic standards.
He is an award-winning teacher, having won Mesquite's Apple Corps Award for excellence in 1996. He was the chair of Poteet's Social Studies Department, and has experience organizing and conducting summer sports programs.
Bragg was chosen from six finalists for the position. A committee was appointed by the school district to select the new athletic director and coach from an original field of 50-plus applicants.
A previous deadline of March 20 was set to name the new administrator, but Hendrix said the trustees, CISD officials and community members were wanting to move more quickly.
"We felt the athletic director needed to address the planning process that occurs in the spring and be in on the decisions," she added.