The introduction of Charles Henderson High School’s new football coach and athletic director quickly turned a called board meeting into a locker room pep talk – and folks were excited about it.

“I’m ready to go,” Superintendent Lee Hicks  told the full board room just minutes after new AD Mike Dean spoke to the group.

The hiring of Dean, formerly the head coach at Valley High School, was approved Thursday at the called meeting of the Troy City Schools Board of Education. In talking about the hiring process, Hicks told the board and audience members that he knew during the interviews Dean was the right man for CHHS. “I could have stopped the meeting in the middle of it and hired him … he had me ready to run into a wall.”

Dean, who attended the meeting with his wife and two children, spoke for about 10 minutes to the gathered crowd, rallying them behind  his philosophy of passion and perfectionism: “We’ve got to win every day,” he said. “Failure is not an option …

“We want to be champions in everything we do.”

Dr. Boyd English, principal of CHHS, said, “we like to say ‘it’s a great day to be a Trojan, and today it really is a great day to be a Trojan.”

“When we talked about our vision – about blue trophies and a blueprint for success – and when we talked to Coach Dean … it just felt natural.”

In addition to the hiring, the BOE approved the $3.441 million bid from Whaley Construction for the building of a new cafetorium at  CHHS and the renovation of the existing cafeteria into a media center. The project is part of nearly $15 million in planned capital improvements.

The board also approved four other personnel items relating to salary supplements and the hiring of a part-time SAC accreditation specialist.