CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. – (ESPN Clarksville) Northwest High School’s Athletic Department is pleased to announce the appointment of Neil Furnish as the new Head Football Coach for the Northwest High School Vikings! Coach Furnish is originally from Cynthiana, KY where he played football at Harrison County High School. After graduation, he played collegiate football for two years at Eastern Kentucky University.
Since his time as a player, Coach Furnish has well over fifteen years of coaching experience. Coach Furnish is currently an Algebra I teacher at Northwest and served as an Assistant Coach for the Northwest Vikings in the 2018 season. He is married to Amy Furnish, who is the Head Volleyball Coach for Northwest. Together they have three children: Kaitlynn, Samantha and Keller.
Coach Furnish shared that he loved football because “Football directly correlates with life in various situations. Football teaches young men that they are a part of something larger then themselves. Football is a unique endeavor in the fact that it must be a team activity in order to succeed.
Within each football game, there are ups and downs, emotional highs and lows, successes and failures, pain, torture, and adversity. Being able to overcome all of these obstacles requires an emotional and mental toughness that is difficult to find, even in the adults of today’s world.
Football allows coaches to use a game as a platform to teach the players about life. There are many critical life skills that players must use to be successful in life and in football. Some of these are discipline, work ethic, responsibility, accountability, teamwork, and leadership.
When asked about stepping into this new role, Coach Furnish replied, “I am most excited about helping the student athletes of Northwest achieve new goals and build a community of support that makes Friday nights in the fall at Northwest High School the place to be.”
Northwest High School’s Athletic Director, Jessica Peppard, said, “We had a wide variety of interest in this position. We narrowed the large pool of resumes we received and interviewed who we felt were the top candidates for the position. Ultimately, the administrative team felt that Coach Furnish was the best fit for the position based on his previous head coaching experience and familiarity with our program.
Coach Furnish has a wealth of coaching knowledge and has had the opportunity to learn and grow from his various coaching experiences throughout his career. He has a strong vision for the future of our program, and we believe he will continue to grow our athletes and push them to achieve excellence, both on the field and in the classroom. I am excited to see what our team can do next season under his direction.”