HORACE LANGFORD JR. / PVT Brian Hug, the Pahrump Valley football coach and athletics director, was absent from the sidelines when the Trojans played at Yucca Valley, Calif., Friday. Advertisement

Brian Hug, the athletics director and varsity football coach at Pahrump Valley High School, is on administrative leave, with pay, pending the outcome of an investigation of a public complaint.

Dale Norton, a Nye County School District assistant superintendent in charge of extracurricular activities, is conducting the interviews.

"When we complete the investigation, we will inform the high school principal (Kent Roberts), and he will make the announcement on the outcome," Norton said Monday morning.

Administrative leave meant that Hug was temporarily relieved of his duties as AD and coach. That decision was made last week; the Trojans' football game at Yucca Valley, Calif. was Friday and leading the team on the sidelines was Ray Goodell, an assistant coach who joined the PVHS staff in August.

Goodell was the head football coach at Ely White Pine, a Southern Nevada Class 2-A team, for three years before he moved to Pahrump. He teaches special education and is based in the Ninth Grade Academy building.

Because it is a personnel matter, the details on why Hug was placed on administrative leave could not be discussed. According to sources familiar with PVHS athletics, the public complaint was filed after the Trojans' football game with Spring Creek Sept. 14. The visiting Spartans won that intrastate Class 3-A game, 55-0.

Goodell indicated he would be the head coach through this week, an open date for the Trojans, who are 0-4-1 in all games after playing a 34-34 tie with Yucca Valley.

In other games this season, PV's football team lost 24-20 at Phoenix, Ariz., Christian; 61-0 at San Diego, Calif., Torrey Pines, and 33-6 to Chino, Calif., Don Lugo.

The Trojans host defending Nevada Class 3-A champion Mesquite Virgin Valley in the PVHS Hall of Fame game Oct. 5; play at home against Las Vegas Faith Lutheran Oct. 12; travel to Overton Moapa Valley Oct. 19 and close the regular season Oct. 25 at Boulder City.

Since Hug's arrival in Pahrump in August 2006, PVHS football teams are 3-11-1. In 2006, the Trojans lost 40-0 to Las Vegas Chaparral, 48-3 to Don Lugo, 47-6 to Spring Creek, 36-7 to Virgin Valley, 31-17 to Faith Lutheran and 56-39 and 20-10 (in the playoffs) to Moapa Valley.

The wins were against Yucca Valley, 34-30; Las Vegas Legacy, 29-14 and Boulder City, 34-14.

Hug, a Michigan native, came to PVHS after leading the Port Huron, Mich., Pirates to the Great Lakes Indoor Football League regular-season and playoff championships.

He replaced Steve Nygaard -- 17-29 with one league championship in five years -- as football coach and Rich Lauver, the Trojans' highly-successful fast-pitch softball coach, as athletics director.