THOMASVILLE — Thomas County Central is taking the time it needs to find the next leader of its football team.

The search for the 12th head coach in program history will take a little longer than previously expected, with the selection committee currently in the process of finishing the first round of interviews, which began during Christmas break.

Central ended up with around 120 applications for the position. Thomas County School Superintendent Dr. Dusty Kornegay said that the field of candidates has been pared down to 12 people. The majority of that group has been interviewed already, but there were some circumstances that slowed the process down a bit.

“We weren’t able to get everyone in because some of our applicants had pre-planned obligations to be out of town,” Kornegay said. “It has extended our interview process a little bit more than we had hoped. But we’re making good progress.”

The original target date to present the successful candidate to the school board for approval was Jan. 9. Central will look to finish the first round by the end of this week or early next week. There will be two or three candidates that make it to the final round of interviews.

“At this point, because we’ve had to push back some of the interviews, I’m not as confident that we will meet that (Jan. 9) goal,” Kornegay said. “I don’t think it will be more than a week later than that. I think that we will probably end up having a called board meeting in mid-January, probably the following week.”

The timeline for board approval after the more in-depth second round could also depend on a couple of factors, including availability of candidates, possibly getting out of a current contract and the amount of time that negotiations for a new contract could take.

The school still hopes to have the new coach in place by early February.