Caddo has found its new head football coach and didn’t have to look very far.
Former Madill head coach and Southeastern offensive coordinator Chad Speer will be the new Bruin leader when spring practice begins, replacing former coach Jeff Wigington who resigned to pursue other endeavors.
Speer guided the Wildcats from the 2020 through the 2024 season before moving into a full time administrative position. He admittedly is eager to get back on the sidelines with a Caddo program that has reached the state playoffs six straight years.
“I am really excited and looking forward to it,” Speer commented. “I saw this as a great opportunity to get back into coaching. Caddo is a great place with a lot of consistent athletic success. They have a lot of tradition and I hope to come in and help take it to the next level.”
Prior to his arrival in Madill, Speer served one season as offensive line coach at Durant after spearheading the Southeastern offensive attack from 2013 to 2018 as coordinator. Before Southeastern, he served as head coach at Leavenworth, Kansas, for three years as well.
All of those stops, however, were at the 11-man level, but Speer has already started the learning curve in the transition to the 8-man game at Caddo and is looking forward to the chance to learn new things along the way.
“The intriguing part for me is a chance to learn something new and adapt to the 8-man game compared to 11-man,” he said. “I have been studying up and learning and am excited about that aspect of the job for sure. There are a lot of similarities with 11-man but it is more geared toward offensive football at times. As an offensive guy, that is something I am looking forward to. We are going to spread out and run the ball some as well as try to get the ball to our playmakers out in space.
“If you look at the best teams in the playoffs the last few years, you obviously have to be able to play defense as well. Coach Millermon is going to stay on and run the defense which should keep the continuity there.”
Although Speer will welcome back a good core of experience, including standout running back Bayler Black, he will have to find a replacement for graduating All Star quarterback Cale Wigington.
Versatile athlete Jake McKay is one of the main options, but the new Caddo coach is going to wait until spring practice in May when he starts fully working with the Bruins to decide the route they are going to take.
“There are quite a few guys coming back that have played and have experience,” Speer added. “I will start working with them in spring ball but in the meantime am trying to get out and meet some of the kids and build relationships. Hopefully, we can get more young kids excited about it at the elementary and junior high level. They haven’t done spring ball so that will be something new for them to experience. It’s a chance for some guys that haven’t played to come out and give it a try. We’ll try at that point to see where the best pieces fit.
“Our goal is to build one game at a time and make an even deeper push in the playoffs. They have been to the second round five years in a row so our focus will be taking the next step. We are definitely going to challenge ourselves in the non-district slate. If you’re going to be the best you have to beat the best, and we are going to work to prepare ourselves to do that.”
That challenge, according to the new head coach, will include 2026 non-district contests with defending state champs Weleetka and Dewar.
