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Recently, Goshen High School added a new assistant coach to the football staff in former Highland Home Head Coach Will Pouncey.

Pouncey led the Flying Squadron for five seasons, compiling a 39-22 overall record with 22 wins in 2022 and 2023 combined. He led Highland Home to the State Semifinals in back-to-back seasons in 2021 and 2022.

“I am extremely excited about hiring someone that has the reputation and experience of Coach Pouncey,” Goshen Head Coach Don Moore said. “I have known Will for a long time and know he will be a great asset as we look to elevate Goshen Football.”

Pouncey, a Highland Home graduate, also attended and graduated from Troy University, where he worked as a student assistant with the football team.

“I always knew that’s what I wanted to do, I wanted to be around the game in some facet,” Pouncey said of entering the coaching world.

Pouncey’s first coaching job was as a volunteer assistant coach at Goshen in 2008. He would go on to serve as an assistant in two different stints at Elba along with coaching stops at Pike Lib and Charles Henderson before becoming defensive coordinator at Highland Home in 2015. He served as defensive coordinator at his alma mater until being named head coach in 2019.

After this past season, Pouncey decided to step down as head coach at Highland Home.

“It was just time for a change for me and my wife and my career,” Pouncey continued. “I’ve been very successful at Highland Home as a head coach and a defensive coordinator over the last several years but I knew I needed to step away and I wanted to do it on my terms and with the program at its best.

“I’m going to start going for my Master’s (Degree) this summer and I needed to step back and have a mental break from being a head coach for a year or two. It’s what I felt was right for me and my family.”

Pouncey had plenty of opportunities to take on other head-coaching roles elsewhere after leaving Highland Home, and while Pouncey said that time will come in the future, it’s not right now. Pouncey said returning to Goshen felt like a full circle moment for him, returning to where his coaching career began.

“Goshen has always had a special place in my heart and it’s where I started my career,” he said. “The relationships I was able to build there are lasting and it just felt like the right thing for me at the right time. I’ve been able to build a great relationship with Coach Moore over the years and this is going to give me the opportunity to be able to step back and just focus on the football part of things and the relationships with the kids without having those head coaching responsibilities. I do plan on being a head coach again in the future but not in the foreseeable future.”