Almost six months after initially announcing his retirement from the high school football sidelines, the only head coach Liberty Christian has ever known has decided his decision will stick.

Greg Price

Mark Bowles, who started the Warriors’ program and spent 26 seasons at the helm, was being coaxed out of retirement by the Liberty faithful before deciding in mid-April that his coaching days were officially over.

He will give way to his offensive coordinator, Greg Price, who will be the second head coach in school history.

Price, 36, who has been at Liberty since 1997 and the offensive coordinator since 2003, was a player and graduate assistant coach at North Texas until 1996.

“It’s a dream come true and a goal achieved that I’m the head coach now, but that he’s [Bowles] no longer with us on a regular basis hurts because he’s been the only head coach we’ve ever had,” Price said. “I’ve always taken pride in that. It makes Liberty very special. I always see him as the Tom Landry of TAPPS. It’s bittersweet.”

At the Liberty coaches’ Christ-mas party, Bowles let Price know that he would be the guy if he decided not to return to the sidelines. That came after defensive coordinator Rick Gailey took his name out of consideration for the possible job opening.

“We were in a holding pattern for so long wondering what would happen next,” Price said. “I felt comfortable because I knew I was in a good situation either way.”

Though Bowles, who still serves as a vice principal at the school and is a TAPPS official, wasn’t the sole decision-maker in the job hunt, he did have input on who would replace him, and the 52-year-old coach knew Price would be the man for the job.

In fact, Liberty didn’t even open the job to the public, though Bowles said they had calls from prominent high school and college coaches across the country calling to see if they’d have a chance.

“He has the culture, and to bring someone in from outside that might come just because it’s a football job might mess the whole thing up,” Bowles said. “It’s such a unique culture. I don’t know if we could find someone better than Greg.”

Bowles said he always looks for assistants who follow his coaching philosophy, and Price fit that to a tee.

“Coaching football here is a lot more than how many games can you win,” Bowles said. “It’s not about him [Price], it’s not about wins and losses, it’s all about these kids and helping these boys grow up to be good young men.”

But that philosophy doesn’t come at the expense of wins and success.

Bowles finished his time at Liberty with a career record of 212-73 and led the Warriors to six TAPPS state title games.

The Warriors state title games in 1994, 1996 and 2007 before bowing out in the state semifinals to Dallas Christian last year.

Being around such great success in his only professional job, Price said he doesn’t intend to make many changes.

“I’ve been here 12 years,” Price said. “The majority of the program will be exactly the same. We’ll continue to tweak and do things as the school grows and we get more kids. “But at the same time, I’ve gotta be me. I can’t be Coach Bowles. We’ll do some things that will reflect my personality but there won’t be any huge changes. Our defense and offense will remain the same.”

Bowles said he won’t try to push his way into the new coaching staff’s business, but if he’s called, he’ll answer quickly.

“He said he wanted to call me for input,” Bowles said. “I told him I didn’t want to be like a mother-in-law looking over your shoulder. If they ask, I’ll tell them what I think, but I’m not going to be sticking my nose in where it doesn’t belong. Whether I’ll be in the press box or on the sideline, I’ll still be involved with Warrior football.”

And Bowles admitted that when August rolls around, it will be hard to stomach the fact that he’s no longer directly involved with the program.

“It hasn’t really hit me yet,” Bowles said. “When I’m going to experience that is next year when football starts with two-a-days and all those kids show up to take physicals in their brand new shirts and shorts and helmets and there’s that excitement in the air. That first football game when the kids come out, I don’t know how that’s gonna be.”

ADAM BOEDEKER can be reached at 940-566-6872. His e-mail address is aboedeker@dentonrc.com .