With football practices set to begin in six weeks, Tracy Unified School District is under a tight timeline to find a new head coach for the West High varsity team.

The hiring of West football coach Matt Loggins as Kimball High’s head football coach leaves a big vacancy at West.

Loggins said last week after accepting the Kimball job that he will get Kimball football players started on their spring and summer workouts the first week of May.

It’s the time all local high school programs typically begin preparations for fall, which gives little time to find a replacement at West.

But as of Wednesday, March 20, the school district had yet to begin the search for Loggins’ replacement.

District spokeswoman Jessica Cardoza said personnel issues, including a review of certificated employees, has taken priority, but she expects the job will be posted within the district “as soon as possible.”

If no one employed by the district applies within two weeks, the job posting goes out to the public for two more weeks.

Once candidates are found, the district will form a committee that will review applications and interview prospective coaches. Cardoza said the committee would include district officials and a West High administrator.

In the meantime, Loggins stays on as West High’s athletic director and as a physical education teacher, and he will work with next year’s Wolf Pack football players in his weight-training class at West through the end of the spring semester.

He also hopes to teach at Kimball, though that would require an additional hiring process.

West High interim Principal Troy Brown said Wednesday that school safety issues — which arose from four bomb threats since March 13 at Tracy High and Kimball High schools — took priority over the past week.

He said he had not had a chance to talk with the assistant superintendent of educational services, Sheila Harrison, about personnel matters in the school’s athletic department.

• Contact Bob Brownne at 835-3030 or brownne@tracypress.com.