EARLY – After seven years at the school and four seasons as athletic director and head coach of the Early Longhorns football program, Daniel Price has stepped down from his duties to become the offensive coordinator at Palestine High School.
Price guided the Longhorns to a 27-20 record – including a 9-3 mark in 2021 – and four playoff appearances during his tenure as head coach, with three bi-district championships. Prior to Price taking over, the Longhorns had not reached the postseason since 2008.
“It’s been a great seven years here and the last four leading the athletic program and the football team has been wonderful,” Price said of his decision to leave Early in a Tuesday morning interview. “As we got toward the end of this school year we started looking at what’s best for the family and we decided we needed to start putting out some feelers and seeing what was out there. I threw out some things, but didn’t have any idea where it would land.”
As for the decision to head to Palestine, Price said, “I went and looked at a few places and Palestine offers a lot. They’ve got great facilities, it’s a 4A Division I school and the job I’m going to get there made it hard to turn down.”
Reflecting on the seven years at Early, Price said. “Our time in Early has been awesome, we’ve enjoyed it, but sometimes God opens and closes doors for a reason. I’m most proud of the young men and women we were able to coach and hopefully see them one day be great citizens and husbands and wives and mothers and fathers and have successful lives. We have a lot of good memories and had a lot of success over the last four years in multiple sports, but especially football where we were able to take that program and turn it around. We’re leaving it in a good spot.”
Early’s current four-year playoff run is the most fruitful since the Longhorns reached the playoffs in the 2005-08 campaigns, which included two trips to the state semifinals and another to the state quarterfinals.
Price said of building up the Longhorn football program, “That was always the goal, but I really didn’t know what to expect. I had been here for three football seasons and we had some moderate success and did some good things, but we hit it just right with a great group of kids and got some great coaches that did a lot of work to make us better. When you put it all together, you get four great seasons and you turn around a program, and it’s amazing to watch a community and a school and the excitement level and expectation level knowing you’re going to win big games when you turn that corner. It’s something I’ll never forget.”
With Price’s departure, his son Rohyn will be leaving the Longhorns program as well. In 2023 as a sophomore, Rohyn Price completed 125 of 208 passes for 2,004 yards with 20 touchdowns and 11 interceptions, while rushing for 315 yards and six scores. On defense, he tallied 30 tackles including three for loss with one sack and two interceptions.