Make it three men who have now held the title of Salem football head coach during the 2022-23 school year.
At a special meeting of the Salem R80 Board of Education Friday, the school accepted the resignation of Kevin Miles from the contract he had in place for the upcoming school year. Miles had been hired to replace Bryson Barnes as Salem football head coach, but a swirl of controversy at his former school, Palmyra, prompted Miles to not only turn in his resignation at that school for the rest of this school year, but at Salem as well.
Later Friday, Salem quickly found his replacement as the newest football head coach, as Neal Myers – currently a teacher/coach in the Rolla Public School system – agreed to take the job. It will be Myers’ first head-coaching position.
Last month Myers had been hired to teach special education and be a football assistant at Salem for the 2023-24 school year. Now the 43-year-old Myers will serve as special education teacher as well as assistant athletic director and football head coach at Salem High.
Myers becomes the sixth head coach for the Salem Tiger program in the past six years.
Miles was to replace Bryson Barnes, who resigned his Tiger football head coaching duties following a winless 2022 campaign. Miles was also slated to serve as Salem assistant athletic director, a role that now will also be filled by Myers.
It has been a whirlwind of activity revolving the Salem football head coaching situation in recent days, which began with Miles’ resignation and ending – hopefully – with Myers replacing him.
“I had accepted the position as defensive coordinator under (Miles),” said Myers, a native of Rolla who has played against the Tigers in high school and coached with former Salem head coach and all-state player Bill and Joe Schuchardt, respectively, while a member of the Rolla High coaching staff.
“I was asked Thursday night about the head coaching job, if that would be something I’d be interested in. I told them (being a head coach) was my in-game goal eventually. I talked to (Salem Superintendent) Lynne Reed and was told they would be recommending me for the job in the meeting Friday. And that was when it was offered,” he said.
Initially Myers had looked forward to working with Miles in an attempt to help restore a winning culture in the Tiger football program.
“I had talked to Coach Miles,” Myers said. “Philosophically, we had some of the same beliefs on how a defense should be run, and we talked a little on offense. I thought we would have worked well together.”
Myers said he hopes to meet with the Salem players at some point this coming week. And he was to talk to Rolla administration concerning his resignation there Monday.
The first thing Myers will have to address is a depleted Salem assistant coaching staff, as several of last season’s assistants reportedly aren’t returning.
“My understanding is we want to hire assistant coaches,” Myers said. “We have got to get the right people in place; people right for the kids.”
Myers will not commit to an offensive and defensive system for the Tigers until he gets to see his personnel on game film and in person.
“I’m a multiple defensive guy,” said Myers, who worked closely with Bill Schuchardt and Rolla defensive coordinator Cody Sneed on the Rolla defensive staff the past couple of seasons. “With every team defense, you’re reacting. Offensively we’ve got to identify who we are. I’d like to be use a power game, if we have the right personnel. I like to run and I like play-action. (Eventually) we will need to establish what we’re going to run as a base offense.”
Myers knows well about the rich Salem football tradition.
“I’m very excited about it,” he said. “Even back when I was playing, Salem was a team you knew was going to be a bigger battle than most of the big-city schools you played. And I know that is still in the community. Now we’ve got to get that culture back.”
Bill Schuchardt, a Missouri Sports Hall of Fame coach who the Salem High football facility is named after, plans to again be an assistant coach with Rolla in 2023. But Myers has hopes to invite that familiar face back to Dent County from time to time to help revive that old Tiger culture.
“Working with Bill the past couple years, we got along well from the beginning,” Myers said. “Certainly, I will ask him if he will help mentor me in Salem. He knows everybody there.”
Myers is a 1998 Rolla High School graduate who exceled in football. During his three-year starting stint for Rolla as an offensive/defensive lineman the Bulldogs finished with a combined record of 25-6.
Myers went on to play NCAA Division I football at Arkansas State University. After redshirting his first year there, he was a linebacker for A-State. He then transferred to NCAA Division II Emporia State of the MIAA and played three years for head coach Jerry Kill as a standout defensive end.
He was a student assistant coach one year in college and spent 4 ½ years coaching at Casa Grande, Ariz. High School, before returning home to Rolla, where he has been a Bulldog assistant coach the past four seasons.
Myers and his wife, Holly, have one daughter, 11-year-old Morgan, and one son, 10-year-old Bryce.
