Gulf Shores High School principal Dr. Ernie Rosado officially introduced the school’s new head football coach and athletic director to the community at Monday’s city council meeting.

“We would like to introduce our new coach and athletic director Ben Blackmon,” Rosado said. “It has been an ongoing process for a couple of weeks. We moved quickly but slowly because we wanted to get the right individual for our students at Gulf Shores High School.”

Blackmon comes to Gulf Shores after spending four seasons as the head coach at Greenville High School, where he enjoyed a 31-14 record and a Class 5A Region 3 championship during 2009. That same season, Greenville scored a school record 459 points, was undefeated in the regular season, and reached the second round of the state playoffs.

Blackmon hopes to bring that same success to Gulf Shores.

“I am honored to be here in front of you guys,” Blackmon told council members. “I just hope that one day these guys that I am going to be training will give back like you guys are doing. That’s my goal as a football coach and athletic director, that we can teach these guys how to be men and to give back to their community.”

Blackmon said he expects to be very visible to the community and encouraged everyone to feel free to call him at anytime.

School board representative Angie Swiger was also on hand and commended Dr. Rosado for a job well done in finding coach Blackmon.

“He put a committee together and did a great job searching for our new head coach,” Swiger said. “It was fantastic organization and he did a wonderful job of taking care of everything.”

Craft said he feels very good about the selection.

“I’ve had an opportunity to spend some time with the new coach and he comes from a great background and I believe he is going to be a real strong, positive influence on the youth in this community,” Craft said. “We are excited to have him and I believe we have good things to come.”