Pittsburg ISD has a new athletic director after the board voted unanimously to hire John Huffstetler as the district’s next head football coach.Huffstetler, a 2006 Mount Vernon High School graduate, comes to Pittsburg from Center ISD where he has most recently worked in several positions including head golf and track coach, defensive coordinator, strength and conditioning coordinator and assistant athletic director. He has been with the Shelby County school district since 2021. Huffstetler also coached a semester at Trinity Christian School in Lubbock before returning to East Texas to work in Tatum, Gilmer and Alto.
“This was mine and Cynthia’s number one choice,” Coach Huffstetler explained as he addressed board meeting attendees Jan. 27. “I have not applied anywhere else. I’m not interested in being anywhere else. Growing up down the road; Cynthia is from Mount Pleasant, Pittsburg has been circled on our map from the time we started in Year 1 at Tatum. We just knew this was our top pick for where we wanted to be and where we want to be for a long time.”
A military veteran, Huffstetler graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis while enlisted in the US Marine Corps and Reserves. After proudly serving his country, Huffstetler set his sights on becoming a high school coach. In fact, Huffstetler previously volunteered for two weeks with the Pittsburg Athletic Department during the time the late Coach Dickey Meeks served as AD.
Huffstetler has also served as a 4th and 1 Football Camp Coach. The yearly summer event, held for 10 years on the campus of Northeast Texas Community College (NTCC), attracted coaches from all over the country including Huffstetler. It is there, in the Summer of 2014, that he met his future wife, Cynthia Soto, a former NTCC student and staff member. The two married a year later.
“Rico (Willis) knows his wife and he introduced those two together,” Waldrep explained.
The Huffstetlers’ arrival to Pittsburg comes after former AD Triston Abron announced in December that he would be stepping down from the position. Abron was originally hired in March 2021 to lead the districtwide athletic department.
“I know a lot of people in the coaching world still…and we know that we have found the right person for Pittsburg,” Superintendent Terry Waldrep explained of Huffstetler. “The things we looked for [in a candidate]: Are you passionate about kids? Are you passionate about coming to Pittsburg? Do you want to be a Pirate? Because I want the legacy, like we talked about, to return. We need to get back to that culture; that’s the culture I grew up on. And we haven’t had it.”
Huffstetler, who signed a two-year contract with the district Jan. 27, is expected to begin immediately. He shared some of his top goals for the athletic program moving forward.
“We’re here to develop. We’re here to lead. We’re here to give these kids every single thing that we’ve got and they come #1 every single day,” Huffstetler said. “For those of you who have children in the program, I can tell you right now that they will be the priority every day; they will be the focus. It’s our absolute goal to develop them; not just to compete on the field or the court, but to give them tools to be great human beings.”
Sonya Woods
Sonya has followed a lifelong passion for journalism. Sonya began publishing The Tri-County Press on August 29, 2013, providing a weekly newspaper connecting the citizens of Titus, Camp and Morris Counties as well as neighboring residents through responsible community journalism.