Ray Holladay is going home.
As the head football coach at Churchill County High for the past five years, Holladay recently resigned to become the head coach at Santa Fe High School in his native New Mexico.
In his five seasons with Fallon, he posted an overall record of 12-35 and a .255 winning percentage. His teams were 6-25 in league play (.194). He begins his new job March 16 in order to coach spring practice.
Holladay came to Fallon in 2004 from Reed High in Sparks, where he was an assistant football coach. He taught special education at CCHS and will do the same at Santa Fe.
"It's the right time for me and my family to move," Holladay said. "It's time for a new voice in the program here."
Holladay said he was attracted to the Santa Fe job in part because of its similarities to CCHS. Santa Fe High currently competes in New Mexico's 5A classification, where it's near the bottom of the enrollment cutoff number, much as CCHS is in the 4A. However, the New Mexico Activities Association recently changed the classification enrollment numbers causing Santa Fe High to drop to the 4A in the fall of 2010.
"That attracted me to the job more than anything, Santa Fe moving into a division where they can compete," Holladay said. "That's a big drawing point."
Holladay said that had CCHS dropped down to the 3A, he wouldn't be leaving.
"If the (Nevada Interscholastic Activities Association) had followed through with what they planned last year, where Fallon, Elko, South Tahoe and Wooster moved down to the 3A, then I'd stay," Holladay said.
Holladay takes over a program that's gone 14-37 since 2004 and 4-6 in each of the past two seasons. He will be the school's third head coach in as many years and its fourth in the past five seasons.
Holladay said he also was attracted to the Santa Fe job because it offered a much larger coaching salary, and because he can hire assistant coaches who are school district employees. All but one of his assistants in Fallon are employed outside the school district.
"With off-campus coaches it's tough to do things like camps and clinics," Holladay said. "It's hard to ask them to take time off work or vacation time to go to a clinic or camp. That a majority of my staff will be on campus was another big draw."
Holladay is leaving Fallon in mid-semester so that he can conduct spring football practice at SFHS. CCHS Athletic Director Brad Daum said Holladay will be missed.
"It's a huge loss for our program, and it will be very difficult to replace him," Daum said. "The program today compared to five years ago is night and day. The number of kids almost doubled and the competitiveness at the 4A level improved under his direction.
"He worked 24/7 to improve this program. He'd done a tremendous job. We'll miss him, but we wish him the best of luck."