Football: Burnett Tells Players: "I Won't Be Back at Broad Run", Accepts Position at Tuscarora

By Dan Sousa
VivaLoudoun.com Editor

Ashburn (Jan. 13, 2010) - Broad Run High School varsity football coach Michael Burnett, who turned around a 1-9 football program and in four seasons led the Spartans to a 43-6 record and back-to-back VHSL Division 4 state titles, confirmed Wednesday that he told his team on Tuesday that he will not return to Broad Run next season. He has accepted the social studies department chair at Tuscarora High School in Leesburg, which will open in the fall.

There are media reports that Burnett will also be the first football head coach at Tuscarora. (Read Matt Brooks story on WashingtonPost.com here and Read Andy Hayes story at GameDayMagazine.com here, and VirginiaPreps.com was listing the Broad Run position as open Wednesday)

"The County hasn't approved my hiring, but I did tell the kids yesterday that I won't be back at Broad Run," said Burnett in an email to VivaLoudoun Wednesday. "I have accepted the (social studies) department chair position at Tuscarora."

Tuscarora Athletic Director Derek Farrey released the following statement in response to the hiring of Burnett as the Huskies first football coach: "There are no confirmed sources. The School Board has made no appointments."

Coaching hires in Loudoun can be offered and accepted but aren't publicly released until the school board officially approves.

Broad Run High School Athletic Director Jake Kirby, when reached by phone Wednesday, also said he could not comment on if his head football coaching position was open.

Loudoun County Public Schools Public Information Officer Wayde Byard when reached Wednesday about the reports of Burnett's hiring said that "nothing has been done. No contracts have been finalized."

Byard expected official word on Tuscarora's new football coach and possibly the other new high school's football opening, Woodgrove in Purcellville's, as well as other new coaching hires for the schools at the Jan. 26 school board meeting.

Burnett was a surprise hire in 2006 when Broad Run went out of the county ... way out of the county ... to snag Burnett from Santa Monica High School in California. In the first season under Burnett the Spartans went 5-5 and since then have lost just one game, winning 28 straight while defeating Amherst County two straight seasons for the school's first ever state football titles, and winning 38 of the last 39 played.

In other Broad Run football news, the Washington Post reported that Spartan star senior running back T.J. Peeler would undergo surgery Wednesday for a torn ACL suffered in the state title win in December. Peeler has committed to Pitt but the injury may delay his entry into college as he rehabs.