As IdahoSports.com was first to report over the weekend,Carl Keever will be the new head football coach at Payette High School.

Athletic Director Bob Dixon confirmed the hire after Troy Gleave stepped down following eleven seasons as the head man of the Pirates’ program. 

Gleave has accepted a teaching position in the Meridian School District at Rocky Mountain High School and will coach quarterbacks for the Grizzlies under head coach Scott Criner.

“In eleven years, Coach Gleave took a program that had neverbeen to the postseason before to heights that it had never seen before, like five state playoff appearances and a third-place trophy in 2009,” Payette Athletic Director Bob Dixon said. “I’m confident that Coach Keever can keep pushing the program forward to great things.  I’m impressed with his unbelievable enthusiasm.  He obviously wants to coach and he wants to be here.”

Keever was most-recently an assistant coach at 5A Meridian.  Prior to that, the Boise StateHall of Famer was the head coach at McCall-Donnelly when the Vandals, like Payette, were members of the 3A Snake River Valley Conference.  Keever was a three-time All American at Boise State from 1982-1984 and remains the only player in the history of the program to record over 130 tackles in three different seasons.

Gleave spent eleven years as the Payette head coach, including five postseason appearances. His 2009 team went 8-3 and reached the 3A state semifinals, where it was defeated by rival and eventual state champion Fruitland.  A former college and professional quarterback, he ranks in the top three all-time at Dickinson State University(NAIA) in passing attempts, completions, yards and touchdown passes.

The Pirates are scheduled to open practice the week of August 10 and Keever’s first game as the school’s head coach will be Friday, September 4, when Payette hosts neighboring New Plymouth.

Gleave’s first assignment with the Grizzlies comes on the road on Friday, August 28, when Rocky Mountain visits Lake City of Coeurd’Alene.