Friday, March 12, 2010
Senseney resigns at Fleming
The football coach won two district titles in four seasons at the Roanoke city high school.
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William Fleming High School hopes to debut a new football stadium this fall.
The Colonels also will have a new coach.
Rob Senseney, who has been Fleming's head coach for the last four seasons, has resigned to accept a similar position at Knightdale High School in Wake County, N.C.
Senseney posted a 30-12 record with one Western Valley District title and one Blue Ridge District crown during his tenure, His new school is closer to his hometown of Fayetteville, N.C., where his mother resides.
Senseney missed one of Fleming's regular-season games last fall to travel to Fayetteville after his mother suffered a stroke.
"She's doing OK; there are no lingering effects," Senseney said. "But that had been a concern for awhile. After missing a game last year, that made me think about it a lot more."
Knightdale is a six-year-old high school in the Raleigh area. Senseney said the program has won five varsity football games in its history.
"There's nowhere to go but up," he said. "From watching film, I think they need to hire a stronger staff. They've got athletes. It's a Wake County school, but it's sort of isolated with its own identity. I would compare it a little bit to a Salem."
Senseney, a social studies teacher at Fleming, will not waste any time getting started. His first day of work will be March 24.
His wife, Elizabeth, an English teacher, will remain at Fleming through the end of the school year.
"The school system was very helpful," Senseney said. "My wife will teach out the year and I'll be coming back and forth, and we'll be selling our house."
Senseney's move will be his third in five years. He led Gretna to back-to-back Group AA Division 3 championships in 2003-04, then took the head coaching job at North Stafford before coming to Fleming
Senseney said the uncertain economic situation with the Roanoke City Schools system also was a factor in his decision to leave.
"There are some scary things that have been talked about publicly, teachers getting cut and much larger class sizes," he said. "North Carolina has state-based pay versus local-based pay. The salary structure is more stable."
Fleming reached the Northwest Region playoffs each of the past two years, but the Colonels did not have a home stadium in any of Senseney's four seasons. The school also had five different full-time or part-time athletic directors.
The Colonels used Patrick Henry High School as its home field from 2007-09 and played the entire 2006 season on the road or at neutral sites.
Last year the Colonels played just nine regular-season games -- one below the minimum. Senseney said Fleming has not yet found a 10th game for the 2010 season.
Last fall the school board fired Fleming principal Susan Willis, who was in charge of the school when Senseney was hired and replaced her with Doris Ennis.
"It was a trying situation," Senseney said. "I don't know if there's a blueprint for what we went through. Maybe we should write a book. Under Willis, it was very supportive. Under Ennis, considering the boat she got thrown in, it was very supportive.
"I've got no complaints."
