From Charlotte to Durant, Oklahoma, Jeremy Harness has already traveled in a bulk of the country during his coaching career.

That’s why a chance to coach closer to home was so appealing for Harness. The John Hardin High School and Murray State product was named the new head football coach at Warren Central High on Thursday, replacing Mark Nelson.

“I’m super excited,” Harness said. “It’s an opportunity to come back closer to home. My dad is an hour away. My mom is two hours away. My wife’s family is still in Murray, Kentucky, so we are super excited to come home. And then Bowling Green is just a great city. I’m super excited to be here and we’ve got a great turnout when it comes to numbers as well.”

Harness was most recently the wide receivers coach at the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor in Belton, Texas. He has also coached at Central Hardin, South Oklahoma State, University of Charlotte and Campbellsville University.

He said he was looking to move closer to home when his wife noticed the Warren Central job was open. Harness was a teammate at Murray State with Jensen Feggins, so he reached out to former WC coach Howard Feggins about the opening.

“He said, ‘Man, that would be a great place for you, especially your first head coaching job to get started,’ ” Harness said. “When I talked to coach Feggins I was like this was what I wanted to do.”

Harness inherits a team that finished 1-9 in the first season in Class 6A. Under Nelson the Dragons ended a 62-game losing streak, going 5-6 in 2022. Harness said he sat down with Nelson about three or four hours on Thursday to get an idea of his team and the program.

“He has been a tremendous help for me,” Harness said. “He’s told me about certain players. He’s talked to me about academics with the guys. He’s been a tremendous help. One thing is continuing what he has already built.”

Harness said he also hopes to use his college connections to help any player interested in playing football at the collegiate level.

“That’s the fun part – using those connections and knowing people,” Harness said. “I’ve already reached out to a couple of coaches that I know coaching at the collegiate level, telling them I’m about to understand what we’ve got and start shooting y’all some guys.

“Now it is on our end. We have to work on making sure our academics are right and where we need them to be, because those coaches can’t do anything for us if our academics aren’t there.”

His immediate plans are to put together a coaching staff.

“I’ve already talked to a guy that is going to help me with strength and conditioning,” Harness said. “Getting my (defensive coordinator) hired. Getting my offensive line coach hired. That’s really the biggest thing right now on my plate is working on getting that coaching staff put together.”{&end}