Maud ISD has named New Boston native Josh Turner as its new athletic director. Turner, a 2006 graduate of New Boston High School, says he always dreamed of being a coach. “I’ve got some key people in my life that had a lot of influence on my decision to be a coach and my aspirations to be an athletic director,” said Turner. “ My parents - my mom is an educator so I was surrounded by it my whole life, and I’ve known some great coaches. I coached under athletic directors Buddy Ray and Jason Hooker, who were great athletic directors and role models. Michael Hill, Lonnie Henry, Brian Bowman….they were great coaches that I played for that made me love sports. I played four sports at New Boston. That’s just what I did, that’s what I loved, and what I loved to be around.”
After high school graduation, Turner went on to play college baseball for several different schools before finishing up at Missouri Southern State in Joplin, Missouri. He jumped straight in to coaching, taking the head baseball position at Queen City ISD. He remained there for three years before moving to Brownsboro ISD, serving as the defensive coordinator and head baseball coach there for four years. Two years ago, he made the move to Chapel Hill(Tyler) ISD where he remained until accepting the Maud ISD position. He will begin his tenth year in education next year as head football coach and athletic director - no small feat in the coaching profession, but one that Turner’s former coach Michael Hill says is no surprise to him. “Josh was the type of kid you want to coach,” said Hill. “He’s all heart. You love to coach kids like that - the ones you know are going to out-work you and always go the extra step, the extra mile. I’m not surprised at his success in coaching at all. I knew he was going to put in the work it takes to be successful and I have no doubt he will continue to do that.”
Turner, too, is optimistic about his future with Maud ISD, and ready to put his stamp on the athletic program. “There are going to be some changes, obviously, but we still want to be Maud,” he explained. “There are some things that we are going to make better. One thing I pride my program on is hard work - we’re going to be very intense, we’re going to be very tough, and very disciplined. I want our kids to work really hard in the off season, and then to get better every week…I think if you do things the right way, then the wins will take care of themselves and the success will come.”
