Village Academy will have a new head football coach entering spring practice.
Delray Beach native Dameon Hughes has been hired to coach the Tigers, athletic director Christine Jiggins announced Friday night.
Hughes, who played high school football at Boca Raton, is a longtime assistant football coach in Palm Beach County. He also spent several seasons as an assistant at a junior college in Kansas.
This will be his first head football coaching position.
“We believe he is the right man to help rebuild, revise, and re-energize the Tiger football program,” Jiggins said.
Hughes, who also has coached girls basketball and flag football, takes over for Rod Huggins, who stepped down in December after one season with the Tigers.
Village Academy struggled with injuries and lack of depth last season, and finished 0-9.
Four of those losses came by forfeit, as Village Academy didn’t have enough players to take the field.
Hughes expects to begin the rebuilding process immediately. Fourteen players return from last year’s team, and Hughes plans to meet with them on Tuesday.
“Right now my goal is to build from the bottom and have some success moving forward,” he said. “We’ll have greater success if we get the success at the bottom, which I know we will. My plan is to go in, start off small and go big.”
Hughes, who most recently coached football at Santaluces, currently teaches at Atlantice. He will move to Village Academy in the fall, but will run the Tigers’ spring practice.