By Thomas Jones, Sports Editor

It doesn’t take more than a glance into the head football coach’s office at Westlake High School to see that major changes are afoot.

Coach Derek Long has already cleared his personal items and emptied the desk, but the office won’t sit empty for long. In his first visit to Westlake High School, newly hired football coach Darren Allman said that he expects to start Monday on prepping the Chaps for the 2009 football season.

“I don’t plan on coming in here and changing everything, because that would be a mistake,” said Allman, who accepted the position of Westlake’s head football coach and the Eanes school district athletic director Wednesday after four seasons as the head coach at Odessa Permian. “But we’ll bring in some different things. I knew before I got here that Westlake kids work hard and expect to win. Our goal is to win the state championship next year, and I can’t wait to get to work.”

Allman met with most of Westlake’s coaches and football players Friday. He did not identify which coaches he expects to work with, saying that “no decision has yet been made” concerning which coaches will join him from the Permian staff and which Westlake coaches will remain.

Four coaches were contractually tied to Allman at Permian, including offensive line coach Ted Willmann, defensive coordinator Matt Anastasio, defensive backs coach David Jones and recently hired offensive coordinator Jeff Rhoads. Those coaches’ contracts with Permian were terminated when Allman resigned from the Odessa school.

Allman has said that he wants to bring those coaches with him to Westlake but still needs to determine the status of the current Westlake staff as well as the options for his assistants at Permian.

“They have some really good coaches here [at Westlake], so it wouldn’t be intelligent to come and just clean house,” he said. “My goal is to get the best staff possible.”

The coaching staff won’t be the only thing changing for the football program. Allman, the first head coach from outside of Westlake in three decades, says he plans to conduct spring football at Westlake, which will mark a first for the school. Spring football includes a full-contact practice schedule and usually takes place in April. Schools that participate in spring football have a week less of two-a-day preseason workouts in August.

“I think spring football is fun for the kids, and I think it’s a great evaluation tool for the coaches,” Allman said. “Spring workouts will be one of my first priorities.”

Fans will notice a major alteration in Westlake’s schemes during spring football. Allman prefers a no-huddle, two-back shotgun formation that leans on a balanced attack with plays called from the sideline. While Westlake has incorporated a no-huddle into its attack in recent years, the Chaps have traditionally run a pro-style offense.

“I think fans will like what we do offensively,” Allman said. “We do a little bit of everything; shotgun, Wing T, power. It’s a fun offense to watch.”

During Allman’s tenure at Permian, the Panthers showed a balanced offensive attack. They averaged 235 yards rushing and 147 yards passing last season. Quarterback Trevor Adams completed 68.2 percent of his passes for 2,682 yards, and running back Sherard Ray rushed for 2,224 yards during Permian’s 12-1 season.

Ironically, Westlake’s offensive numbers looked similar while going 9-5 in 2008. The Chaps averaged 238 yards passing and 177 yards rushing a game. Tanner Price threw for 2,326 yards on 61-percent passing, and running back Ryan Swope had 1,850 yards rushing.

Allman, a former defensive back at Hardin-Simmons University, described his defensive unit as a base 3-4 that will alter personnel based on the matchups. Like Long, Allman has the majority of his coaching background on the defensive side of the football, and he hinted that he would be more hands-on with the defense.

“There will be some changes,” he reiterated. “But these kids are smart, and they work hard. I’m confident that they’ll pick things up quickly.”