Pahokee High School football head coaching position remains open

Pahokee High has not hired a new head football coach, after all.

Last month, Emmanuel Hendrix was presented as the new Blue Devils head coach in a radio interview with ESPN West Palm.

Around that same time, The Palm Beach Post ran a story announcing the hire which included quotes from former coach DJ Boldin, praising Hendrix.

The problem: Hendrix was never hired as the new coach, according to Pahokee athletic assistant principal Brian Lawson. While Hendrix is one of applicants for the open position — there were 12 as of Tuesday night — he was never offered the full-time position.

Hendrix, who was the Blue Devils' defensive coordinator under Boldin, remains the interim coach heading into Pahokee's spring game at St. John Paul II on Thursday.

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"I have already spoken to the coach about that (radio interview) because that shouldn't have happened," Lawson told The Palm Beach Post on Wednesday. "That really caused a big confusion with us here in the community. You can imagine what it's like with football being such a major sport out here, and everyone pays attention to everything that goes out. We kind of had to go in a mode where we posted on Twitter and Facebook that no hiring had taken place. He was only the interim coach leading up to the spring game."

An email to Hendrix, sent Tuesday night, and a phone message left for him Wednesday morning at Glades Central High School, where he teaches, were not returned.

Lawson said Pahokee had to ensure it was following Palm Beach County school district protocols, which include advertising the job to teachers on campus and posting the job listing online in the Florida High School Athletic Association Member Schools Classifieds Ads section.

Hendrix was named the interim coach at Pahokee when Boldin resigned in February to take a college assistant job in Ohio. Boldin even recommended Hendrix for the full-time position in his exit interview with principal Dwayne Dennard. While other Palm Beach County high schools have replaced football coaches that resigned in February or March, including Forest Hill and Park Vista, Pahokee will not begin interviewing candidates until the week of June 4.

The deadline to apply for the Pahokee position is Friday.

"Basically, if you think of it like this, in the National Football League, if a coach leaves or is terminated, they always have an interim coach they move up," Lawson said. "It's no different than what we did. Coach Hendrix was a major assistant coach for coach Boldin, so we just moved him up so he can basically take over the responsibilities or keep the ship afloat until we are able to handle the interview process."

Lawson's main message Wednesday was simple: Hendrix had never been hired as the head coach, and the position remains open for interested candidates. Pahokee is also looking for a new varsity boys basketball coach, which had six applicants as of Tuesday night.

"You can imagine there was and still is a lot of buzz around this and we just want to make sure with all media outlets, and I made this very clear to all media outlets, and I made this clear to coach Hendrix, once I heard he did that interview on ESPN radio, I was not a happy camper because at that point and time, we had not made a decision on him being head coach," Lawson said. "We just wanted to make sure we are following district protocols."

CORRECTION: In an earlier version of this story, The Palm Beach Post incorrectly reported that Emmanuel Hendrix told former coach DJ Boldin he had been promoted from interim coach to the full-time position.