SE Athletics
Matt Thomas
DURANT – Southeastern Director of Athletics Keith Baxter has announced the return of Bo Atterberry to lead the Savage Storm football program.
Sports presented by Indian Nation Wholesale.
A press conference introducing Atterberry to the community is scheduled for noon on Dec. 13 in the lobby of Bloomer Sullivan gymnasium.
Atterberry is a Southeastern alum who played four seasons for the football program in the mid 1990’s before ultimately trading a helmet for a headset, serving as a student assistant and later a graduate assistant. The 1998 graduate has spent more than 15 years in total playing and coaching within the football program at Southeastern.
Atterberry makes the move back to SE after two seasons as the defensive coordinator at Paris High School in Paris, Texas.
“April, Jax and I are beyond excited to return and be a part of this great University and community,” Atterberry said. “Thankful for Dr. Newsom and Athletic Director Keith Baxter for trusting us to be a part of, and help lead, here at Southeastern. This is home for us. Jax was born here and helped us win against ECU when she was just five days old in 2015. We are grateful to be back. Go Savage Storm!”
“Bo Atterberry brings a knowledge of our University,” said Southeastern President Dr. Thomas Newsom, “Its history and tradition, as a former player and coach at Southeastern, that will help us build on the great success that we have had as a football program over the last two seasons. He is a proven winner, who will build a strong culture of support for an exceptional student athlete experience. He is a perfect fit to develop our student athletes both on and off the field for success at Southeastern and in life. I am excited to welcome Bo, his wife April, and their daughter Jax back to campus.”
“I’m thrilled to welcome coach Atterberry and his family back to SE Football,” Baxter said. “Bo, April, and Jax are Southeastern! I want to thank President Newsom for his leadership and direction during this process. I was overwhelmed with the quality and number of coaches interested in our position. It was important for us to find the best person to provide our program with leadership, stability and direction in a timely manner. I believe we have accomplished our goal with coach Atterberry.”
Previous to his stop in the high school ranks, Atterberry has amassed a 74-51 record as a head coach across stops at Texas A&M-Kingsville and Southeastern and has posted winning seasons in 10 of those 11 seasons.
Atterberry became SE’s 19th head coach in December of 2013 and beginning with the 2014 season posted a 33-23 record over five seasons, including a 32-22 record in Great American Conference play.
He orchestrated a five-game turnaround in his first season as Southeastern improved from a 2-9 record to finish with a 7-5 mark and earned its first postseason berth since 2004, appearing in the Texarkana Live United Bowl in Texarkana, Ark.
Over the following four seasons, Atterberry’s teams would push the program’s streak of winning seasons to five-straight, matching his high of seven wins in two of them.
The Storm also boast 40 all-conference selections in that span and one All-American.
He would serve as Southeastern’s defensive coordinator and assistant head coach in 2013 prior to taking over the reins of the program for the 2014 season.
Atterberry began his head coaching career at Texas A&M-Kingsville in 2007. His first Javelina team went 3-8 – the only time an Atterberry-helmed squad has finished with a sub-.500 record. Two years later, his team claimed the Lone Star Conference championship and advanced to the playoffs, and in 2010, his Javelina squad advanced to the second round of the Division II playoffs.
He was named LSC Coach of the Year in 2012 and AFCA Regional Coach of the Year in 2010, in addition to being named a finalist for the Liberty Mutual National Coach of the Year in 2009. He concluded his tenure at Texas A&M-Kingsville with an appearance in the Kanza Bowl, his third postseason appearance with the Javelinas.
His first stop as a coach at Southeastern began in 2003 as the team’s defensive back coach before moving into the role of defensive coordinator beginning in 2004.
In those three seasons guiding the Storm defense, they won or shared in the LSC-North Division title three times while posting a dominating 13-2 record against league foes in that span.
His defense in 2004 led the LSC and was ranked No. 16 in the nation in total defense which helped guide the program to its first ever NCAA Division II Playoff berth.
His 2006 defense, the final year if his first stop at Southeastern, gave up fewer than 200 points on the season and allowed just 19.2 ppg while leading the conference in pass defense and allowing opposing quarterbacks to complete fewer than half their passes.
Under his tutelage for those three seasons nine SE defenders earned First Team All-Lone Star Conference honor, including the 2004 Linebacker of the Year and the 2005 Defensive Back of the Year.
Atterberry is a 1998 graduate of Southeastern where he started his coaching career as a student and graduate assistant.
He also spent five years working at the high school level at the beginning of his coaching career, spending four of those seasons in different capacities on staff at Bartlesville High School in Bartlesville, Okla.