George West ISD on Friday announced the hiring of Geronimo Navarro head coach Rod Blount as the next athletic director/head football coach at George West High School. 

Blount replaces Brent Bennett, who stepped down in early December to take a job outside of education. 

Blount has 11 years of experience as a head coach posting an impressive record of 99-44. He’s spent the past seven seasons at Navarro where he led the Panthers to the regional finals in 2019 and 2020. He also led Navarro to the regional semifinals in 2018, 2021, 2022 and 2023. 

"I spent nine years at George West as an assistant coach and we lived there for 14 years," Blount said. "It is an outstanding community and there’s just so much pride there. Leaving Navarro was a difficult decision. Navarro’s been amazing to us and it took a special opportunity for me to leave this place and I think George West can be a place where we can have a lot of success.”

Prior to taking over at Navarro, Blount had success leading Mathis where he was AD/HFC from 2014-2017. He led the Pirates to a 12-3 record and a trip to the Class 3A-Division I state semifinals in 2015. Coach Blount is familiar with the lay of the land at George West where he previously served as an assistant coach as well.

The new head coach at George West inherits a program that posted a 9-3 mark a year ago and according to many sources brings a good nucleus back from that team heading into 2025. Blount per a GWISD release is expected to start in his new role on January 20. 

Navarro will be an attractive job opening due to a favorable location between San Antonio and Austin, recent track record of success and the fast growth potential. Expect the job to get a lot of interest across the state.