Morgan Academy athletic director Bob Taylor will no longer serve as the school’s head varsity football coach.

Taylor was removed as the football coach to lighten his workload, according to school officials. He will continue to serve as athletic director and head basketball coach. In two seasons as the head football coach for the Senators, Taylor led the team to a 6-14 record.

“The school has decided to cut back on some of my responsibilities,” Taylor said.

Martha McKnight, headmaster of Morgan Academy, said relieving Taylor of his football coaching responsibilities will lighten his workload and allow him to focus more on his duties as athletic director and basketball coach.

“This is something Bob and I talked about and agreed on and felt he could focus on basketball,” McKnight said. “It is very hard to teach, to be in the classroom, to teach two major sports and have time for family. There are a lot of factors that go into decisions that we think will make it better for the school system and the person involved.”

McKnight said the school received a “huge amount of applicants” for the head coaching position and that the search is ongoing, but the school is strongly considering four applicants. McKnight said the school hopes to have the new coach hired by the next Morgan Academy board meeting, which will be at the end of April, and would allow the new coach to lead the Senators into spring training.

“We are in the process,” McKnight said. “We are trying to find the best candidate for what we need and the ones that will best fit Morgan.”

While McKnight makes the ultimate decision on who is hired, she said Morgan Academy’s athletic committee is very involved in the hiring process and would help her make the final decision.

“It is good to have more than one person involved so that you get different opinions so you can rank your applicants,” McKnight said. “Some are going to rise to the top when you plan what you’re looking for.”

McKnight said Taylor could still work with the football team next season as an assistant coach or serve as the junior varsity head coach, depending on the strengths of the new football coach and the school’s needs.

“The person who will come in will work with Bob and we will make decisions on coaching assignments from there,” McKnight said. “I feel like the two of them will very much work together. I think it will be both of them agreeing how we move from here.”

McKnight said hiring a new coach is a way to strengthen the Senators’ sports programs, because the school needs more coaches.

“We have a lot of children and not enough coaches,” McKnight said. “That happened on our football team, on our basketball team and our baseball team. We have one coach teaching varsity and junior varsity. We are trying to get away from that.”

Morgan Academy is also looking to hire a new girls’ basketball and girls’ volleyball coach to replace Jennifer Moore, who is resigning at the end of the school year.