HORACE LANGFORD JR. / PVT The Pahrump Valley football team went 0-4 in the Southern Nevada Class 3-A League and finished 0-8-1 in all games. HORACE LANGFORD JR. / PVT Brian Hug coached the first half of the season, before being replaced by Roy Goodell. Advertisement

Pahrump Valley's football team was 3-7 in the 2006 season, but made it to the Nevada Class 3-A playoffs. In the 2007 campaign, the Trojans were 0-8-1 and were competitive in only two games -- a 24-20 loss at Phoenix, Ariz., Christian and a 34-34 tie at Yucca Valley, Calif.

Otherwise, it was a frightful campaign on the field for the Trojans, who lost 61-0 to San Diego Torrey Pines, 33-6 to Chino, Calif., Don Lugo, 51-0 to Spring Creek, 60-0 to Overton Moapa Valley, 50-0 to Virgin Valley, 41-7 to Faith Lutheran and 51-7 to Boulder City.

The bottom line: the Pahrump Valley High School football program needs year-round energetic, highly-motivated leadership from whoever coaches the team. It was lack of such leadership which led to the utter collapse of a team that just two years ago won its first Southern Nevada Class 3-A League regular-season title in 12 years.

What has added to the problems the program faces stems from what happened in the coaching ranks during the 2007 season.

Brian Hug, the head coach and athletics director, was put on administrative leave after the loss to Spring Creek, never to return in either capacity. Ron Goodell took over as interim coach prior to the Yucca Valley game and there was hope for a rejuvenation after the Trojans battled back to gain the tie.

But in games against Southern Nevada Class 3-A League opponents (Virgin Valley, Moapa Valley, Faith Lutheran, Boulder City), the Trojans were not competitive, either offensively or defensively.

Getting outscored 201-14 by league teams -- just two years after Pahrump Valley won a league title -- is difficult to explain, considering that after the 2005 season, contracts for coach Steve Nygaard and his staff were not renewed. Which prompted a nationwide search by the administration to find a coach who could successfully do a difficult job.

It didn't work out ... in almost every way possible.

The football coaching job is again being posted by the Nye County School District. There was a Nov. 15 deadline, now the search is apparently open-ended.

A major factor: finding someone who can help the PVHS football program improve enough to be competitive in the tough Sunset Region Southwest Class 4-A Division, which includes 2007 state Class 4-A champion Las Vegas Bishop Gorman.

Pahrump Valley has two feeder programs -- Pop Warner for players in sixth grade and lower, and Rosemary Clarke Middle School, where some sixth graders, but mostly seventh and eighth graders, competed.

There are many players in Pop Warner and RCMS who displayed good skills during the 2007 season, but they also had difficulties coping with opposing players who possessed outside speed and could throw the football. Warner teams were competing against mostly Las Vegas opponents, while the Sharks competed against middle schools from Southern 3-A districts.

The biggest problem the last two years, however, was the lack of continuity throughout the school year in a head coach keeping football players focused on the game. There were no intensive summer programs in either 2006 or 2007, but that was not nearly as important as not having a football coach to talk to during the off-season.

Which is why it is important at this particular moment in PVHS football history to focus on finding a coach intent on building a program from the ground up.

Look at the past; such attempts apparently have been rare here; PVHS football teams, since the inaugural 1973 season, have won 103 games, lost 206 and tied 2, according to unofficial records.

So, let's be real. The job ain't going to be easy.