***Gary Martel Accepts Job At Diboll***It's Offical

[KFDM COOP]

Anahuac Head Coach Gary Martel has accepted the Head Coach position at 3A Diboll. Coach Martel was OC-qb's coach at Diboll before he left for Anahuac in 1999-2000 season...Good luck Coach, we'll miss you.

[Cat22]

He did wonders at Anahuac. Best of Luck to him!

[KFDM COOP]

He's a great Guy and Coach. Wish him the best.

[Guest ECBucFan]

So, who's the front runner to replace him???

[Guest ECBucFan]

This is really a good move for Martel. Diboll has an excellent program, and an absolutly incredible stadium.

[KFDM COOP]

It's offical!! Coach Martel is the new Head Coach at Diboll.

[#1 Cheater]

Rumor has it Charlie Smith will replace Martel as the new AD. He was at Anahuac a couple of years agao.

[KFDM COOP]

Martel Diboll's new football coach, athletic director

By GARY WILLMON

The Lufkin Daily News

Tuesday, June 13, 2006

DIBOLL — The Diboll ISD board of trustees have approved the hiring of Gary Martel to become the district's next head football coach and athletic director. Action came Tuesday night in a special meeting of the DISD board following a 75-minute executive session and marks a homecoming of sorts for Martel, who spent seven years as a teacher and coach at Diboll High School from 1992 to 1999.

For the past seven years, Martel has served as head football coach and AD for the Anahuac ISD, a borderline Class 2A/3A district in Chambers County. After the board's action Tuesday night, Martel said the Diboll job was one of the only jobs in the state that could lure him away from Anahuac, where he took a program that at one point had lost 23 straight football games and turned it into a playoff caliber ballclub.

"I think this is the right move," Martel said. "After a lot of prayer, we just felt it was right. When you leave a place but don't burn bridges, and you still have a lot of friends there, it says a lot that they would want you to come back. But we spent seven fantastic years here in the '90s and had a lot of success. We thought a move back was just the right thing to do."

The board voted 5-2 in favor of hiring Martel, who takes over the program guided for the past 13 years by Finis Vanover, who moved to Angleton as the new head football coach and AD. Vanover brought Martel with him to Diboll in 1992, where Martel served as offensive coordinator for seven years as well as head boys basketball and head boys track coach. Aside from teaching high school science, Martel also served two separate stints as assistant principal at Diboll High School during his seven years there.

"We're coming back to a community where we have many, many friends already. We can hit the ground running. And it's not like when we went to Anahuac; we're coming to a program that had a lot of positives already. This is one of the better 3A jobs in the state — great folks, great administration, great friends and a lot of great athletes — but we still know it's going to be a challenge," Martel said, adding he realized coming to a district that next season will include powerhouse Carthage along with Center, Rusk, Crockett and Huntington will indeed be an immediate test.

"We're not coming in here feeling our way along. It's going to be about getting everything we can out of the kids, and I feel like we'll be OK," he said.

Martel, 43, grew up in Nome, a Jefferson County town with a population of 512. He graduated from Hardin-Jefferson High School before obtaining his bachelor's degree from Lamar University and his master's degree from Stephen F. Austin State University. He and wife Susie have two daughters — Kendal, a sophomore at The University of Texas at Austin, and Kayla, a freshman-to-be at DHS.