SALINEVILLE — New Southern Local head football coach Jimmy Malone has felt the community support for years.

“They stepped up four years ago when I was diagnosed with hodgkin’s lymphoma,” he said. “The community and the kids supported me. I felt like this was the time for me to step up and lead the team for the upcoming fall.”

Malone was hired as the new head coach by the Southern Local board of education by a 5-0 vote during a special meeting Tuesday night. That came after the board voted to non-renew Zack Almy as head coach.

“With the situation we had to deal with last year with Rich Wright leaving and Zack Almy stepped in and took it for (the 2025 season), after the season I decided with all the health problems I had in the past, I was good and it was time for me to step in.”

Malone said he is fully recovered and doctors gave him the “all clear.”

A 2006 graduate of Wellsville High School and a 2010 graduate of Bethany College, Malone then got his start coaching at Wellsville for three years.

He got his first teaching job at Southern in 2013 and currently teaches high school special needs students there.

Malone was an assistant football coach under Mike Skrinjar and Rich Wright before being the junior high head coach for seven seasons. He returned to be an assistant under Almy this past season.

He also is the throwing coach for the high school track teams and the bowling coach.

“At the moment I plan on coaching everything,” Malone said. Except for today because the Indians’ bowling match against Wellsville has been postponed due to the winter weather.

He plans on meeting with the football team “whenever the weather breaks.”

Malone takes over a Southern team that was young last season and went 2-8 with six seniors.

“We’re going to miss those guys,” he said. “They helped out and they’ll definitely be missed. I feel like with the kids we have, we can make some excitement happen.

“I know we have some great kids coming back, including our freshman quarterback (Jack Pitts) and (sophomore running back Jaylen Pitts).”

Malone considers himself more of an offensive coach, but has worked on the defensive side as well.

“I’m more of a goal-oriented person” he said. “I like to throw out some goals. I like to be disciplined. All the small things matter and go through the process.”

“If I can get the kids to believe in that, we can go in the right direction. You have to take pride in what you do.”

He said he will be talking with the coaching staff about fine tuning the game plan to complement the players they have.

“I’m bringing a lot of guys back from the coaching staff,” he said.

Among those coaches he said will be returning are offensive coordinator Brian Spahlinger, line coach Fernando DeChellis (who also helps coach the bowling team) and Dan Spencer.

“Zack and I have had some conversations he could come back for me,” Malone said.

The Indians will open the 2026 season by hosting Toronto on Friday, Aug. 21.

“I’m excited to lead this group of kids,” Malone said. “I got to coach some of these kids in junior high.”