Greenwood High School student athletes wait to congratulate William Howard (left) Monday, March 5, 2018, after a press conference announcing Howard as Greenwood’s new football head coach. (Bac Totrong/photo@bgdailynews.com)

William Howard’s mailbox at Greenwood High School came with a different title Monday morning.

“It had a letter in it that said, ‘Head Football Coach, Greenwood High School,’ ” Howard said. “I’ve been here as an assistant coach and when you see that title, you know things change a bit.”

Greenwood didn’t have to look far for its next football coach.

Howard was introduced Monday at a news conference as the school’s sixth head football coach. He replaces Chris Seabolt, who resigned in December.

Howard was an assistant for four seasons with the Gators and served as the defensive coordinator the last three years. He was tagged as the interim head coach in December when Seabolt stepped down after four seasons and led the Gators through the winter program.

Howard earned the job over about 15 applicants, athletic director Nick Lowe told the Daily News.

“It made sense,” Lowe said. “We talked to him and he was exactly what we were looking for. … When we were doing this search, we realized we didn’t need to look very far at all with coach Howard in the room. We’re excited about his leadership, energy and experience he brings with him as a coach and mentor and role model for student athletes, and relationships he’s built with the community and players.”

Howard prepped at Allen County-Scottsville and played linebacker at Western Kentucky from 1991-94. He held assistant coaching roles at ACS, Barren County and Warren Central before joining Seabolt’s staff at Greenwood.

His only previous head coaching experience was from 2005-06 at Barren County, where he went 6-14.

Greenwood saw its best years under Seabolt with back-to-back nine-win seasons in 2015 and 2016 before a drop to 4-8 last year.

Howard said he’ll carry plenty of traditions Seabolt instilled into his own tenure.

“I think there’s several similarities as far as philosophy offensively and defensively,” Howard said. “We’ll be an attacking style on defense. We’ve got big, physical kids maybe lacking in speed a bit, so we’re going to be tough. It might change a bit because it changes from year to year, even if it is your own system.

“The years I’ve been here with him, he did an outstanding job and brought Greenwood to relevance and made a lot of people have to prepare for us and made people have to respect this program and we’re going to continue to build on that.”

Howard knows the challenges that lie ahead with district competition heating up. If the proposed district realignment presented at the last KHSAA Board of Control meeting is approved, Greenwood would share 5A, District 2 with Bowling Green, South Warren and Christian County.

The Gators have never beaten the Purples in 27 meetings and South Warren advanced to the 5A semifinals last season.

“When we were looking for an applicant for who could take charge and help lead this football program, we looked at who could create that culture and keep that going and get guys out to build this program to the next step and this next chapter,” Lowe said. “You don’t have more of a Greenwood guy than the one sitting at this table. We’re very fortunate enough to get him at Greenwood.”