New Clear Falls High School has its first coach

Mike Zierlein: Photo by Bob Levey

By L. Scott Hainline
Chronicle correspondent
Clear Falls coach Mike Zierlein hit the ground running during his first week with the new Clear Creek ISD high school that opens to freshmen and sophomores in August.
Zierlein will create Clear Falls' football program, and is also the campus athletic coordinator, and he's already searching for head coaches in additional sports.
The school's first varsity football season is two years away (2012), but all other sports start varsity play during the 2011-12 school year.
The No. 1 priority is to get all the head coaches in place, and I'll work very closely with the administration in that area," he said. They'll all start varsity competition a year earlier (than football), so that has to be in order as quickly as possible.
As for the football, we won't need a full staff right away, so it's going to be a work in progress."
Zierlein was the head coach at Class 5A Austin Akins the past three seasons (4-25), and is a former assistant at Lamar Consolidated and Bay City.
Football wise, we'll attempt to field freshman and junior varsity teams the next two seasons," he said. It all depends on numbers, and we'll try to have a few JV games against Class A or 2A varsity teams."