New Scots Athletic Director Embraces Traditions, Legacy

Jordan coached football for 3 decades, most recently at Lake Highlands

As Lonnie Jordan sees it, transitioning into athletics administration doesn’t mean he’s done coaching. He just won’t be on the sidelines anymore.

After almost three decades, the longtime Texas football coach is embracing his new role as the incoming Highland Park ISD director of athletics.

“It’s a chance for me to coach coaches, and I’m excited about that,” Jordan said. “It’s all I’ve done for 30 years is coaching kids. You reach a point in your career when you’re ready to branch out and take on new challenges.”

Jordan was the head coach at Lake Highlands for the past eight years, leading the Wildcats to the playoffs every season. The Scots are currently in District 7-6A alongside Lake Highlands in most sports. HP defeated Jordan and the Wildcats 52-21 last season.

Jordan replaces Rodney Webb, who spent less than a year as AD for the Scots before returning to coaching at Rockwall-Heath. Since starting his new job this spring, Jordan said he has become even more impressed with HP’s legacy of excellence.

“This school district has maybe the richest tradition in the history of high school athletics,” he said. “You know they’ve been successful and won state championships, but when you peel back some of these layers and see how they’ve been able to sustain that success, it’s pretty amazing. Then you talk to the coaches and meet some of these kids, and it makes sense.”

“The level of effort and persistence and tenacity — these kids lay it on the line when they’re competing,” Jordan said. “That’s fun to know that every sport we put out there will include kids doing it the right way.”

Leading behind the scenes, rather than on the field, will be different, especially once football season rolls around. That’s why Jordan wants to strike a balance between his office responsibilities and building connections with athletes and community members.

“Those relationships are important to me,” Jordan said. “Everybody has a role to play, and mine is not coaching football anymore. My role is to support those football coaches. I’m going to be able to separate the two.”

Jordan said he’s still learning the procedures and organizational structure of the district and doesn’t intend to make any major changes immediately.

“What we have here is certainly not broken,” he said. “There’s no agenda coming in other than learning the system and building relationships. We’re going to hit the ground running in August.”