For the second time in several weeks, a Leopard assistant football coach has resigned for the chance to move up the coaching ladder. First it was Phillip Murray leaving to become head coach at Dallas Thomas Jefferson High, now it’s wide receivers coach and biology teacher Shaun Purcell who recently announced that he would be parting ways with the Leopards after four years of coaching and teaching.

“I am going to Wylie East High School,” Purcell said. “I have an opportunity to become offensive coordinator over there, so coaching wise it is definitely a step to become closer to being a head coach as far as that progression goes.”

Although the move is good for Purcell’s career, his athletes aren’t as excited as he is.

“Coach Purcell leaving is disappointing,” junior Aaron Fuller said. “ He was a good motivator and coach in track and football for me.”

New offensive line coach Tommy Poynter will be taking over Purcell’s job at FCA but Purcell will still be working with the FCA.

“I will also be in charge of FCA at Wylie East,” Purcell said. “As FCA is going very well and very strong here, I feel like coach Poynter was put here to continue FCA.”

In fact, the chance to start a FCA program at Wylie East was a deciding factor.

“FCA is not going on [at Wylie East], and so I’ll also be doing FCA over there, because they don’t have it right now,” Purcell said. “I also feel like the Lord has put me there.”

And for whatever he did in the classroom or on the field, FCA is where he may have had the most lasting impact.

“Coach Purcell has a passionate yearning for the lord, that is contagious to those around him,” senior FCA leader Adam McDaniel said. “Coach Purcell has left an impact not only on the field or in the classroom but on every heart, through his contribution at FCA.”