James Hite returned to his alma mater this summer after 40 years as a successful high school football coach.
Hite will work with the Governors tight ends along with other assorted duties.
Hite's prep coaching career took him to multiple stops in Colorado, New Mexico and Texas, resulting in more than 135 head-coaching wins in 25 years. It included an 11-7 post-season record, highlighted by a state championship at Robert Goddard High School (Roswell, New Mexico) in 1989.
Along the way he also led his teams to six district championships and three coach of the year honors as well as coaching in a pair of high school all-star games.
Hite made a habit of being a program builder or rebuilder. In his first head-coaching assignment at Goddard, he led the program to its first district title in 21 years before leading the school to a state title the following year.
In 1991, he led Weslaco (Texas) High School to its first district championship in 21 years and the first Bi-District and Area championships in 36 years.
While at Raymondville (Texas) High School in 1998 he paced the program to its first and second playoff wins in school history.
A Pulaski native, Hite graduated from Austin Peay in 1969 and then began a coaching career that took him to Colorado for seven years as an assistant in football, where he part of four teams that appeared in playoffs, and basketball as well as head coach in golf, track and swimming.
He moved to Texas for the first time in 1977 and then moved to Roswell, New Mexico in in 1979 and remained in that community until 1991, first as an assistant football coach at Goodard before moving to Roswell High School from 1980-85. He returned to Goodard as head coach from 1985-91 before heading back to Texas as head coach at Weslaco High School (1991-94).
He then moved to Mary Carroll High School in Corpus Christi from 1994-97 before making other Texas high school head-coaching stops at Raymondville (1997-99), and Lyford Consolidated Independent School (1999-02) before returning to Weslaco (2002-05). He retired from that program after the 2005 season.
He returned to high school coaching as an assistant at Mayfield High School in 2007 before becoming head coach at Gadsen from 2008-12 at Gadsen High School in Anthony, New Mexico.
He also served as Athletics Director or Coordinator at four different coaching associations.
n addition, Hite is a member of American Football Coaches Association and was a member of Texas, New Mexico and Colorado coaching associations.
