The Fayette school district announced on Friday that Rock Bridge offensive coordinator Kole Hinton will be the next head coach for the high school Falcons next season.

Hinton takes over for Mike Thompson, who leaves Fayette after leading the Falcons to a 29-16 record in four years, including a run to the Class 1 State Quarterfinals in 2021.

This will mark Hinton’s first head coaching job in his young career. Last year he served as offensive coordinator at Rock Bridge in Columbia. The Bruins posted a 9-3 record that concluded with a loss to DeSmet in the Class 6 District 2 finals. He spent four years coaching at Hickman, where he currently teaches English, the last of which was as the freshmen team’s head coach. He also was the special teams coordinator and coached the Kewpie’s wide receivers.

His coaching career started at Battle High School, his alma mater. As a player there, he earned All-State and All-District recognition as a defensive back and was a part of the state championship team as a senior in 2015.

Fayette will be a welcome sight for Coach Hinton. The Columbia native played two years of football at Central Methodist University.

“I got to play at Central for two full years and lived on campus and got to experience the town,” he said. “It’s nice to be back in a familiar place.”

Hinton said he hopes to move to Fayette to become a part of the community.

“I’m excited about it, but there are a lot of nerves,” Hinton said about accepting his first head coaching job. “I want to make sure I do a good job at it. I want to make sure we start off well.”

Hinton said he hopes to learn from the successes and mistakes of the head coach under whom he has served.

Coach Hinton will take over a program that will graduate nine seniors this year, including three-year starting quarterback Ben Wells, All-State wide receiver Chase Allen-Jackman, and most of the offensive and defensive lines. Last season’s 6-5 team had only one junior but boasted a substantial underclass with 10 sophomores and 12 juniors, many of whom saw varsity playing time.

“It’s a blessing and a curse,” Hinton said. “Taking what I learned from being a freshman head coach at Hickman, it’s good because you can build from the foundation up. You won’t have those older players to lean on, but you’ll have a lot of young talent who will get a lot of experience.”

He said for his first year, he wants his players to compete while learning a new system. “We’re going to win ball games regardless because we have talent,” he said.

Hinton said he plans to call the offense while leading the Falcons next year. He intends to implement spread offenses developed at the Classes 5 and 6 levels. Last year he served as offensive coordinator for Coach Matt Perkins and Rock Bridge. The team ran a “wing raid” style offense with an empty backfield.

But as any Class 1 football coach knows, you have to craft a system based on the talent you have. Smaller schools, such as Fayette, have a smaller pool of athletes from which to draw than Class 6 behemoths, such as Rock Bridge.

Hinton said he understands that concept. “That would be ideal, but you also have to fit your system to your athletes,” he said.

One of those athletes will undoubtedly be Carter Vroman. Last season, he rushed for 600 yards as a 5’11, 185-pound freshman.

“Everybody talks highly of him,” Hinton said. “If we have a workhorse, we’re going to feed him.

“There are some pretty good players [who were freshmen and sophomores last year] who I’m excited to see,” Hinton said.

Hinton has yet to meet with his team as of this writing but plans on holding a meeting for players and parents after he convenes with his assistant coaches.

“I’m a man who prides himself on building relationships with kids,” Hinton said. “That’s the most important thing. Most kids don’t care about what you know until they know that you care. That’s the foundation for coaching for me.”

Most of Fayette’s coaching staff will remain unchanged from the last several seasons. Andy Bentley is expected to return as the defensive coordinator. Garth Menees will also return. Absent will be Micah Brimer, who stepped down from coaching at the end of the 2022 season.

Trenton Byers, a senior football player at CMU last season, will join the coaching staff as the strength and conditioning coach.

Fayette is not the only area school with a new first-year head football coach. Harrisburg announced in January that Brennan Claas would take over for Steve Hopkins after four years leading the Bulldogs.

And more changes could be coming. Both Fayette and Harrisburg have voted to leave the Lewis & Clark Conference in favor of forming a new conference. Fayette’s decision is contingent on enough teams voting for the new conference. If the new conference is created, it would mean the last season for Fayette in the L&C would be next year.

The Falcons return to the gridiron for the preseason jamboree on August 18. They open the season at home against Carrollton on August 25.