Moore let go

Staff report

Departing Greene County High School head football coach and activities director Mitch Moore won’t be returning from winter break.

In a move right out of the White House playbook, the Greene County Community School District released Moore on Friday, four months before he could leave on his own terms.

In accepting the job as head football coach at Class 4A Des Moines Roosevelt, Moore told The Jefferson Herald in mid-December he intended to remain on the job at Greene County High School through spring.

On Friday, Superintendent Tim Christensen released the following statement: “As the Greene County Schools moves forward in hiring a new football coach, strength and conditioning coordinator, and activities director, we will be releasing Mitch Moore from his activities director and strength and conditioning coordinator contracts.”

“As a district,”  Christensen continued, “it is important that we move forward increasing participation, building unity and culture, focusing on sportsmanship and developing youth programs. We want to thank Coach Moore for his service to the Greene County Schools and our student athletes. We also want to wish Coach Moore the best of luck at Des Moines Roosevelt.”

Moore, the 2018 District 9 coach of the year, led the Rams for two seasons — taking the team from a 1-8 record to 8-2 overall, a shared district championship and a return to the playoffs.

“What jumped off the page for me was the leadership of their administration and their efforts that are going into making athletics and their football program really important,” Moore told the Herald in December about his planned move to Roosevelt. “I had a great connection with them and certainly had a lot of trust in them going through the interview process.”

Moore came to Jefferson in the spring of 2017 after spending a handful of years as an assistant at Iowa State University.

“What I learned more than anything is to try and avoid some of the outside noise,” Moore said. “When you’re at a university or you’re at a bigger school, you’re not as intertwined with some of the negativity. 

“In this place (Greene County), you are. It can really have an effect on your family and it can have an effect on the people around you if you let it.  I learned to really value what was important and what’s not.”