The upcoming 2010 football season brings a coaching change at Hills-Beaver Creek High School.

Rex Metzger, a 1998 Hills-Beaver Creek High School graduate, replaces Dan Ellingson as H-BC’s head coach.

Ellingson resigned from his head coaching position late last year, ending a 19-year run that started in 1991.

Metzger started as a wide receiver/defensive back for the Patriots in 1996 and 1997.

H-BC’s 1997 team advanced to the state quarterfinals.

After graduating from H-BC, Metzger went on to play football at the University of Sioux Falls. In 2001 he was a key member of a Cougar team that advanced to the NAIA National Championship game. The 2002 USF squad Metzger played with advanced to the national semifinals.

After graduating from USF in 2003, Metzger landed a job teaching third-graders in Ellsworth for five years. He served as a fourth-grade teacher at the H-BC Elementary School the last two years.

When Metzger was employed in Ellsworth, H-BC and EHS shared a football program, which left him with an opportunity to serve as an assistant coach the last six seasons.

After one year of being an assistant only, Metzger worked as the program’s defensive coordinator under Ellingson for five seasons.

Metzger seems to appreciate the opportunity to be the program’s head coach.

“I’m looking forward to it,” he stated.

“We only have three seniors this year, so we’ll be a young team. We do have decent-sized junior and sophomore classes, and I think some of these kids are ready to step up and fill in some gaps for us.”

Don’t expect H-BC’s defensive strategy to change much in Metzger’s first season, but the Patriots might throw some new wrinkles at opponents offensively.

“We’ll change a few things up,” he said.

“Coming from USF, we’ll try to incorporate some of the things I learned when I was there. We’ll stay the same defensively, but we’ll be running a few different formations and use some different running and passing packages this year.”