David “Dirk” Strunk, a nine-year head football coach who has taken five of his teams to the state playoffs, is the new head coach at Priceville High School.

He follows Donald Weeks who resigned after the 2010 season.

A native of Niceville, Fla., Strunk was the defensive coordinator for Columbia High School in 2010 and was head coach at Lawrence County High School in 2008-2009. Previously, he served as head coach at Maplesville, Alabama Christian and New Brockton.

He also served as an assistant coach at Class 5A Eufaula and 6A Niceville, Fla. He had one of the top-ranked defensive teams in the state at Eufaula in 1998 and both Niceville teams he helped coach advanced to the semi-final round of the state’s football playoffs.

His 2001 Class 1A team at Maplesville was a semi-final participant in the 2001 playoffs, after which and he was selected Chilton’s County’s Coach of the Year. He was also named the Capital City Conference Coach of the Year and selected to serve as an assistant coach on the South team in the annual Alabama North-South All-Star Game in 2004.

His overall record as a head coach is 43-57.

Strunk played at a defensive back position at Baldwin-Wallace College in Berea, Ohio, until a knee injury forced hi to give up the game. As a senior, he was coach of the college’s junior varsity team.

Strunk hit the ground running after he was hired June 2, organizing and supervising a summer conditioning program for 45 varsity prospects.

His players are working out from 7 to 9 a.m. Monday through Thursday and will participate in a seven-on-seven camp at West Morgan in July.

“I’m excited about being here,” Strunk pointed out. “This is a growing community with strong school staff and public support for athletic programs. “When the job came open I knew this is where I wanted to be. It’s also close to my family’s home in Trinity.”

Strunk said the goal he has set for his players is simple: “work hard to get better one day at a time.”

He added, “in the short term we’re striving to get stronger and faster. We’ll run an offense that is more traditional than finesse. We’ll run the option some out of a power game but basically we’ll task our offense to be aggressive, fire off the line and move the ball downfield on the ground. On defense, we want to be an aggressive, sure-tackling team.”

Strunk and his wife, Kathy, a teacher at Decatur High School, have two children, David, 11, and Jana Beth, 8. A third child, Katie, was killed in the 2007 tornado that destroyed Enterprise High School.