Cy-Fair ISD on Friday announced that Fort Stockton head coach Jeremy Hickman would be the next head football coach at Cy Woods High School. Hickman replaces Cody Simper who departed Cy-Fair ISD in early February to take over as the head football coach at Barbers Hill.

Hickman has spent the past three seasons at his alma mater Fort Stockton, a Class 4A program in Far West Texas, he’s posted an impressive 25-9 overall record, including a 10-2 mark in his first season 2022. In that season Fort Stockton won just their third playoff game in school history with a bi-district victory over Perryton.

The new Wildcats head coach is plenty familiar with the lay of the land at Cy Woods having spent five seasons on campus helping build the program from the ground up starting in 2007. Hickman was the defensive coordinator for the Wildcats until departing in 2011, he was part of the Wildcats’ back-to-back regional final appearances in 2009 and 2010.

“My time at Cy Woods was special to me, the kids were amazing and there was a standard of excellence that was put in place. When the job opened after Coach Simper left, I felt like the timing was right to look at the position and try to continue to uphold that standard, it’s a top job in Houston in my opinion,” said Hickman.

Before taking over at Fort Stockton, Hickman spent 2021 as the defensive coordinator at New Braunfels Canyon under now UTRGV head coach Travis Bush. Hickman also spent nine seasons as the defensive coordinator at Kerrville Tivy as well.

“Cy-Fair iSD is top of the line, they want to be the best at what they do, and sitting down with Virginia Flores (Cy-Fair ISD athletic director) and the campus administration, it was clear to me that we were aligned in our vision as to how athletics and all extra-curricular activities can be a unifying aspect of a school building along with academics. There is a high standard of expectations on campus, I believe in the power of 212 and the spirit that is inside of that school building and I’m excited to meet that challenge,” said Coach Hickman.

“Fort Stockton will always be my hometown, leaving these kids and this community is hard, we’ve got a lot of great things built here. I am thankful that Fort Stockton gave me the opportunity to be an athletic director/head coach and welcoming us back home and all the support they gave and for all the hard work the athletes put in.”

Expect Fort Stockton to post the job opening for the athletic director/head football coach opening soon, there appears to be a strong internal candidate on staff already and with the Panthers recent success an internal promotion wouldn’t be out of the question in this case.