Coming off the program’s worst season in the school’s 45-year history, it wasn’t the most shocking news on Monday when word came out that a change would be made at the top of the Miami Springs Senior High School football program.

    Alex Pacheco, after eight years at the controls of the Hawks, was informed by principal Anna Rodriguez that his services as the head coach would no longer be required. Pacheco, a geometry teacher, will remain on as a faculty member.

    Pacheco, who coached for eight seasons from 2004-11, finished with a career record of 29-48. That included an 0-10 campaign this past season where the final nine games all went to running clocks due to lopsided scores. It also marked the first winless season in the 45-year history of the program.

    “We appreciate all of the hard work, diligence and passion Mr. Pacheco put into the program, but we felt it was time to move in a new direction,” said Rodriguez, who took over as the new principal at the school last month when she replaced Tom Ennis, who moved on to Killian. “We will begin the search for a new head coach immediately.”

    Pacheco, who played football at Springs from 1982-84, joined the Springs coaching staff under Buddy Goins in 1996 before moving over to Miami Central for three seasons (2001-2003) where he served on the defensive staff for then-head coach Anthony Saunders. He then returned to Springs in ’04 to take over for Gil Lora.

    His best season came in 2007 when, led by now-FIU star T.Y. Hilton, the Hawks won eight of 10 games. However, even an 8-2 record still didn’t get them into the playoffs as the two losses (Columbus, Coral Gables) were district defeats. Having not made the playoffs since 1995, Springs has the longest-running playoff drought of any big school (5A-8A) in the county.

    Perhaps the beginning of the end started at the end of the 2009 season when quarterback Rakeem Cato and wide receiver Tommy Shuler, both three-year starters at Springs and two guys who represented three-fourths of the Springs offense, transferred out.

    Shuler and Cato, along with defensive lineman Ladell Pleasure, took off for Miami Central where they would help lead the Rockets to the 2010 state championship. From there, numerous defections began to take place. In the second game of this past season, quarterback Antwan Peterson led Miami High to a 49-0 win over the Hawks — the same Antwan Peterson who quarterbacked Springs in a 2010 season that saw the Hawks finish 2-8.

    “This is a tough day around here because Alex was a hard worker and one of my personal protégés but things have really gotten tough around here and it was time to refloat the ship,” said Saunders, who has been an assistant principal at Springs for the last four years. “He’s a tremendous teacher and he’ll be all right. We appreciate everything he did and the time he dedicated to the program.”

    And now the search for Pacheco’s replacement will get under way and get under way quickly. The number of head coaching changes in Miami-Dade County football programs is adding up quickly. Springs is now one of four schools (Homestead, Palmetto and Northwestern being the others) looking for head coaches and that number is likely to rise. South Dade and Coral Gables also made coaching changes and already have hired new coaches, so the competition to get a quality replacement has been and will continue to be tough.