Frankfort High School ousts head football coach Craig Foley after 19 seasons
Coach Craig Foley, who this past season became Frankfort High School football’s all-time coaching wins leader, announced on social media on Thursday that he has been fired from his coaching position.
“Today I (Coach Foley) was given the chance to resign from my position as Head Football Coach at Frankfort High or be non-renewed,” Foley posted on Frankfort football’s Facebook and Twitter accounts on Thursday afternoon. “I told Mr. Barber (Frankfort school superintendent Houston Barber) that I was not quitting on the kids and would not resign, so effective at 3:05 I will no longer be the HFC. I can’t answer questions as to why as no answer/reason/explanation was given.”
Foley continued, “It’s been a great 19 yr (sic) run, we have won lots of games, put many student athletes into college and grown some boys into men.”
Foley met with his players on Friday morning.
“Even though they had already heard, I wanted them to hear it from me,” Foley told the Herald-Leader. “All the kids have been encouraged to keep working out and stay patient. You know, you play for your teammates, you don’t play for the head coach as far as that goes.”
Foley told the Herald-Leader he was completely blindsided by the action.
“I knew I had the meeting. I had a heads up with that,” he said. “I thought I was basically getting a small little reprimand for posting some pictures on social media about the condition of the field house. So, the non-renewal was completely out of left field.”
Foley, Frankfort’s head coach since 2003, led the Panthers to a 7-5 mark last season in Class A’s 3rd District, which also includes Kentucky Country Day, Eminence and Berea. Frankfort’s 56-0 win over Lynn Camp on Aug. 27 pushed his record past Raymond Webb’s (139-79-2) on the school’s all-time wins list. Foley finished 2021 with a record of 145-82-1.
Foley plans to continue coaching.
“I’m not done,” he said. “I’ve had my eyes on some things, but yesterday, last night, this morning, it’s been a little more accelerated on my part.”
